When grading students' quizzes and exams, I find that students are seemingly always changing their answers from the right answer to the wrong answer. In fact, I have cautioned students against changing their answer. Colleagues have made similar observations and some books on test-taking strategies advise against answer-changing. In an effort to…

Student errors are springboards for analyzing, reasoning, and justifying. The mathematics education community recognizes the value of student errors, noting that "mistakes are seen not as dead ends but rather as potential avenues for learning." To induce specific errors and help students learn, choose tasks that might produce mistakes.…

In this paper, the entries of Lang-8, which is a Social Networking Site (SNS) site for learning and practicing foreign languages, were analyzed and found to contain similar rates of errors for most error categories reported in previous research. These similarly rated errors were then processed using an algorithm to determine corrections suggested…

Too many multiple-choice tests are administered without an evaluative component. Teachers often return student assessments or Scantron cards--computerized bubble forms--without review, assuming that the printing of the correct answer will suffice. However, a more constructivist approach to follow up multiple-choice tests can make for more…

In order to communicate understanding, students are often required to produce texts which present an explicit, coherent argument. This study examined the extent to which individual differences in undergraduates' topic knowledge and working memory skills were related to their ability to revise texts to better fulfil these goals. Forty-seven…