Maryam Haltam
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Stephanie Lu, Head of R&D
Research Mentor School/College/Department: , Ross School of Business
Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Session: Session 2 (11am – 11:50am)
Breakout Room: Room 9
Presenter: 7
Abstract
There is a great disconnect between existing research and policy makers who determine the curriculums in schools. Rather than using the traditional approach of a single, summative benchmark that prohibits students from accessing certain opportunities, we should be focusing more on formative ways of assessing students, and incorporating check-ins while kids are learning in order to benefit both instructors and students. This study aims to determine how cognitive science can inform the learning of students below the age of 10, as well as what factors influence their mastery behavior development. Specifically, it investigates how to best assess student success as well as how to help young students who are struggling to rebound from failure due to lack of equitable support in their classrooms and institutions. The methodology for this research includes compiling papers on cognitive processes and educational systems and extrapolating their central concepts to identify core education problems and effective learning methodologies. The goal of this investigation is to create feasible solutions that address student learning, teacher readiness, and the learning crisis. Special attention was given to longitudinal studies with participant sample sizes over 1000 for reliability. The research suggests that feedback, in the form of formative assessment, is one of the best tools for improving student understanding of material and long-term memory retention, regardless of whether the student completed a task incorrectly prior to receiving feedback. It can be used as diagnostic data to adjust and differentiate both instruction and learning. On this basis, the concepts of feedback and formative assessment should be taken into account when designing instruction methods that are attuned to success.
Authors: Maryam Haltam, Marcus Lee, Stephanie Lu
Research Method: Qualitative Study
