With respect to Joe Hatcher's question about why people might NOT require
final exams,
Paul Brandon wrote:
At 09:38 AM 3/19/01 -0600, Paul Brandon wrote:
>Because it promotes cramming (see spaced vs. massed practice).
>Material tends to be learned the night before and forgotten the next day.
I would argue that final exams provide the BENEFITS of spaced practice (not
to mention
retrieval practice). That is, assuming the worst, that students study for
each exam only
the on night before, then at least having a final assures that they will
study the material for each
exam twice (once before the in-semester exam and once before the final),
providing
spaced practice on the material.
I include quizzes, exams, and a final exam in my courses, in order to force
as much
spaced encoding and retrieval practice as possible.
-Mike
************************************************
Michael J. Kane
Department of Psychology
P.O. Box 26164
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, NC 27402-6164
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
phone: 336-256-1022
fax: 336-334-5066
