Relative benefits of pretesting versus posttesting

Determine the relative benefits of practice testing administered before learning (prequestioning/pretesting) versus practice testing administered after learning (retrieval practice/posttesting).

Background

The paper reviews evidence that both prequestioning (pretesting before instruction) and retrieval practice (posttesting after instruction) can benefit learning, and reports a strong prequestioning effect in an undergraduate environmental chemistry course. However, the study does not directly compare prequestioning against posttesting, and the broader literature contains conflicting results on their relative efficacy.

Consequently, establishing whether pretesting or posttesting confers greater benefits, and under what conditions, remains unresolved and is explicitly noted by the authors as not yet fully established.

References

The relative benefits of engaging in practice testing before or after information has been learned, however, have yet to be fully established (studies to date have had conflicting results).

— Prequestioning Enhances Undergraduate Students Learning in an Environmental Chemistry Course  (2403.02788 - Pan et al., 2024) in Discussion — Metacognitive and instructional considerations