Professor Robin Boyle has published an essay, “Didn’t I Cover That in Class?  Low-Stakes Technique of Quizzing to the Rescue.” Her essay appears in 27 Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute 299 (2023).

Her essay begins with this scenario: “We all have had those moments when students’ papers do not reflect an important lesson covered in class.” Drawing from the earlier work of David Kolb and more recent research by neuroscience experts, she explains how repetitive use of low-stakes quizzing engages students to achieve deep learning. She cites popular books on the topic, which have been the subject of our faculty discussions, including Small Teaching, by James M. Lang and Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, by Henry L. Roediger III and Mark A. McDaniel.

Professor Boyle blends the theory of the “retrieval effect” with scholarly work pertaining to the Millennial generation and Generation Z. Relying upon the work of Professor Renee Allen and others, Professor Boyle surmises that low-stakes quizzes, repeatedly utilized throughout a course, is “one tool in the toolbelt of active engagement during class.”