The Effects of a Student Generated Lesson Summary on Retention

Overview

Objectives/Goals At the end of a lesson, a teacher will sometimes have students summarize the information presented by stating, "Tell me something you learned". The purpose of this experiment is to determine whether or not this "lesson summary" significantly enhances the students' ability to later recall the information presented. Methods/Materials Students from grade levels fifth through eighth were divided into six groups. All six groups were read the same article. None of the students knew they would be tested on the material later. At the end of the article, half of the groups were asked to state something they had learned from the article until ten responses were obtained (about three minutes). This was called a "lesson summary". It was a brief, student-generated summary (the students volunteered the oral information). The other groups did not perform a lesson summary. Both groups were later tested for retention of the information, and their scores compared. The process was then repeated for a second article and test, but with the groups reversed (i.e. the previous "lesson summary" group was now the no "lesson summary" group). Results In all cases (for all groups), the students who participated in the brief lesson summary scored significantly higher than those who did not. The average score for all students with a "lesson summary" was 18% higher than the average score for students with no "lesson summary". Conclusions/Discussion Although further studies should be done to confirm the outcome of this experiment, the results of this study would support a general recommendation to include lesson summaries as a part of a normal lesson plan. Students taking part in the lesson summary scored consistently and significantly higher than those who did not, suggesting greater retention through participating in the lesson summary.

Awards (1)

• Category Award

Competition history

• CSEF 2002 Social Sciences (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1712

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