I can definitely see where Boris would have a problem with students knowing the periodic table. Having a science undergraduate background, it is very difficult to stay on top of all the material if the core foundation of knowledge isn’t already understood. I have been there before as a student many times. It is a neat situation that with educational/media technologies where they are today, Boris has a lot more options now than he had a decade ago. If he really spends the time to create a useful review tool for his students, it could be something he uses regularly in his class. Or perhaps something he could post on the Internet for others to utilize. I can’t imagine being in Boris’ situation where you know that your students need time for review and feedback but the curriculum doesn’t provide that resource that they need. I wonder where the failure in the learning process is happening? The course curriculum, the school schedule, Boris’ organizational methods, student engagement? There are lots of possible issues that could lead towards the gap in learning for his students. I think it is admirable that Boris wants to try and fix the problem with a review tool. I know many teachers that would just kind of give up because they don’t think they could fix the issue. It will be interesting to see what kind of tool Boris comes up with and if there are a subset of students that it does not work for. Reading through Gibbs & Simpson (2005) it does appear as if there is quite the variety of ways to implement assessments and that there are varying degrees of success with the assessments based on their structure and intent.
Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31.