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*Welders Without Borders / Soldadores Sin Fronteras and Welding Thunder and related content are protected by Copyright 2000-2025 All Rights Reserved, Service Mark 2000-2025 All Rights Reserved, Trade Mark 2000-2025 All Rights Reserved. No use may be made without express permission in writing. *Foro Spanish / Espanol Blog Spears Into Pruning Hooks, Swords Into Plow Shares Welders Without Borders Photos Bolivia-Santa Cruz Peru Click here for updates: WWB/SSF Welding Thunder "TM" "SM" 2023 HAITI 2013 Institute for Joining Metals Krakow Poland Welders Without Borders Certification Program Page Teaching by Testing by Professor Samuel Colton Sr. Intellectual Property Rights Notice. All Rights Reserved

Teaching by Testing: An Integrated Retrieval-and-Application Model

for Welding and Career-Technical Education

Professor Samuel Colton Sr.

Founder of Welders Without Borders

Abstract

Teaching by Testing is a practitioner-developed instructional framework for welding and career-

technical education in which students learn technical material in small increments, retrieve that

information frequently, review correct answers, correct misunderstandings, and apply the knowledge in

practical settings. The model integrates visual instruction, instructor explanation, instructional technology

and video, written technical material, brief multiple-choice and written-response testing, mathematics

exercises, and kinesthetic shop practice. Its recurring instructional cycle is Learn -> Retrieve -> Test ->

Review -> Correct -> Apply -> Repeat. The framework is consistent with established research on retrieval

practice, practice testing, distributed practice, formative assessment, and mastery learning, while

remaining a distinct practitioner-developed approach whose causal effectiveness should be evaluated

through formal research. Welding provides a particularly useful setting for the model because successful

performance requires students to connect declarative knowledge, technical reading, mathematics, symbols

and drawings, safety requirements, process variables, and psychomotor skill.

Introduction

Career-technical education asks students to do more than remember isolated facts. A welding student

must recognize technical terms, interpret drawings and welding symbols, understand process variables,

perform calculations, follow safety requirements, set up equipment, and then apply that knowledge while

producing a physical weld or fabrication. These demands make the separation of 'classroom knowledge'

from 'shop skill' artificial. Effective instruction must help students build a usable knowledge base and

repeatedly connect that knowledge to action.

Teaching by Testing was developed from welding instruction as a practical response to that need.

Students are given frequent opportunities to learn, retrieve, test, correct, and apply small amounts of

technical information rather than waiting for a large examination at the end of a unit. Testing is therefore

used not only to measure learning but also as an instructional event.

The Concept of Teaching by Testing

The central proposition is straightforward: students learn a manageable technical concept, are

required to retrieve it, receive prompt review and correction, apply it to a related problem or shop task,

and encounter it again through cumulative repetition. The process can occur almost daily. The intent is to

change.

The core cycle is:

LEARN -> RETRIEVE -> TEST -> REVIEW -> CORRECT -> APPLY -> REPEAT

Assessment as an Instructional Activity

Traditional assessment often occurs after instruction and is treated primarily as a judgment of what a

student has retained. Teaching by Testing uses frequent low-stakes assessment during instruction. A short

multiple-choice item, brief written response, oral question, symbol interpretation, measurement problem,

or equipment-selection question requires the learner to retrieve information rather than merely re-read or

re-hear it.

The assessment becomes productive when it is followed by review. Students see the correct response,

compare it with their own reasoning, identify misconceptions, and encounter the concept again in a form

that prepares them for later application.

The Role of the Test Bank

A large test bank provides the recurring retrieval structure. Questions can address welding theory,

safety, process variables, electrode and filler-metal classifications, welding symbols, blueprint

interpretation, inspection, codes and standards, technical vocabulary, mathematics, and shop decision-

making. Items are reused cumulatively so earlier concepts remain active while new concepts are

introduced.

Multiple-choice questions are useful because they allow rapid retrieval and correction, but the system

should also include short written responses that require students to explain meaning, relationships, or

reasons. The objective is not to train students to recognize answer letters; it is to create repeated

encounters with the technical ideas behind the answers.

Why Students Review Correct Answers

A testing cycle is incomplete if a student only receives a score. Review of correct answers converts

assessment into instruction. Students should know what the correct response is and, when appropriate,

why it is correct. Incorrect alternatives can also be discussed so misconceptions are not allowed to remain

unchallenged.

This corrective stage is especially important in welding, where a misunderstanding about polarity,

shielding gas, electrode classification, joint preparation, weld-symbol location, or safety can migrate from

a written exercise into an actual shop decision.

Repetition Without Mere Memorization

Repetition is necessary, but Teaching by Testing is not intended to reduce technical education to rote

memorization. Students repeatedly retrieve foundational facts, relationships, rules, and procedures so

knowledge, instruction can require comparison, selection, diagnosis, prediction, and problem solving.

The desired outcome is a student who can recognize familiar parameters and then reason from them

when a workplace situation is not identical to a classroom example.

From Stored Knowledge to Workplace Extrapolation

Real fabrication rarely presents itself as a perfectly repeated textbook problem. Students therefore

need schemas, concepts, rules, relationships, and prior experiences stored in long-term memory that can

be combined with critical thinking. Teaching by Testing attempts to strengthen that base through frequent

retrieval and then deliberately asks students to extrapolate.

For example, a student who understands electrode classification, welding position, polarity, base-

metal thickness, joint design, and process limitations is better prepared to evaluate an unfamiliar welding

task than a student who remembers only a single demonstrated procedure.

A Blended Learner Approach

Teaching by Testing is a blended learner approach designed to meet learners where they are and

progressively lead them toward subject mastery. In this framework, blended does not simply mean

combining face-to-face and digital instruction. It means deliberately blending multiple pathways to

learning: visual instruction, instructor explanation, technical reading, technology and video, retrieval

practice, written response, mathematics, source-directed research, hands-on demonstration, and small

performance tasks.

This approach is particularly well suited to career-technical and trades education because learning is both

cognitive and physical. Students must know technical information, retrieve and explain it, locate and

verify it in authoritative sources, and ultimately demonstrate that knowledge through performance.

The objective is not to classify students permanently as visual, auditory, reading-oriented, or kinesthetic

learners. Instead, the instructor deliberately blends appropriate modes of instruction because technical

competence requires students to see, hear, read, think, retrieve, calculate, verify, and physically perform.

Teaching by Testing meets the learner where they are—but it does not leave them there. It progressively

leads the learner from exposure, to understanding, to retrieval, to application, and ultimately to mastery.

Multimodal Instruction

Teaching by Testing is intentionally multimodal. A technical concept may be presented visually

through diagrams, welding symbols, drawings, photographs, or demonstrations; auditorily through

instructor explanation and discussion; through instructional technology or video; through concise written

material; and kinesthetically through measurement, equipment setup, fit-up, welding, inspection, and

fabrication.

The testing component links these modes. A student may see a weld symbol, hear its explanation,

read a short description, retrieve its meaning on a test, and then use it to fabricate the indicated joint.

Industry articles, manufacturer literature, code-related explanations, and other technical publications

can be paired with reading questionnaires. The purpose is to prevent reading from becoming a passive

exercise in moving through words. Questions direct attention to definitions, claims, process relationships,

numerical information, causes, consequences, and practical implications.

A student should finish a technical reading able to explain what the material means and how it relates

to welding practice, not merely report that the reading was completed.

Source-Directed Retrieval and Technical Reference Literacy

Teaching by Testing can be strengthened by requiring students not only to answer a technical question,

but also to identify where the supporting information is located in an authoritative technical reference. In

welding education, this may include a handbook, code-related publication, manufacturer literature,

procedure manual, textbook, or other assigned source.

A source-directed retrieval item can require the student to record the edition, section, page number, table,

figure, or other location used to support the answer. This turns an open-book test from a simple answer-

finding exercise into a structured technical-reading task. The student must interpret the question, navigate

the reference, distinguish relevant from irrelevant material, locate supporting information, record the

source, and then commit to an answer.

This approach is especially useful when multiple editions of a technical reference remain in circulation.

For example, questions based on the 12th and 14th Editions of The Procedure Handbook of Arc Welding

can be written around technical concepts common to both editions while allowing students to document

the exact answer location in the edition they are using. The instructor can then review not only whether

the response is correct, but whether the student reached it through an appropriate source.

Source-directed retrieval therefore adds a documentation step to the Teaching by Testing cycle. It

develops technical reference literacy alongside recall and application and reinforces a workplace habit

important in welding and fabrication: when a technical decision matters, the worker should be able to

identify the basis for that decision.

Example Source-Location Format

PHAW Answer Location: Edition _____ Section _____ Page(s) _____ Other/Note

______________________________

Technology, Attention, and Cognitive Engagement

Teaching by Testing does not assume that increased use of instructional technology necessarily produces

increased learning. Technology may support visual demonstration, targeted practice, technical reference

access, video instruction, assessment, and other components of the instructional cycle, but its instructional

value should be judged by what the learner is cognitively required to do.

This distinction is consistent with the work of neuroscientist and educator Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath. In

written testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Horvath

argues that the central issue is not the rejection of technology, but whether educational tools are aligned

with the way human learning actually works. As he states, “This is not a debate about rejecting

cognitive costs associated with repeated task switching.

Horvath’s analysis is relevant to career-technical education because technical competence requires more

than exposure to information. A welding student must retain terminology, interpret drawings and

symbols, reason through process variables, navigate technical references, and transfer knowledge to

physical performance. Digital tools can assist these activities, but they should not replace retrieval,

explanation, correction, source verification, or hands-on application.

Horvath also summarizes research comparing handwritten and laptop note-taking, observing that

“handwriting forces summarization, organization, and conceptual encoding.” This observation supports

the use of concise written-response questions, worked mathematics, technical annotations, and other

activities in which students must reconstruct meaning rather than merely copy or recognize information.

Source-directed retrieval provides a particularly strong connection between these ideas and Teaching by

Testing. When students must locate an answer in an authoritative technical reference, identify the edition

and source location, interpret the relevant passage, and commit to an answer, the task requires deliberate

attention and active processing. Technology may still be used to access or present the source, but the

learning objective remains the student's cognitive engagement with the technical material.

Accordingly, Teaching by Testing adopts a tool-neutral position: paper, books, digital references, video,

learning-management systems, and artificial intelligence may all have legitimate instructional uses when

they support rather than displace retrieval, reasoning, correction, documentation, and practical

application. The relevant question is not whether a tool is digital, but whether its use strengthens the

learning cycle.

Math Minis

Math Minis are short, focused exercises designed to place mathematics inside the technical context in

which students will use it. A typical Mini can fit on one page of instruction and challenge material, with a

worked solution on the reverse. The exercise should normally take approximately ten minutes.

Topics can include fractions, decimals, tape-measure reading, unit conversions, ratios, percentages,

geometry, area, circumference, angles, material takeoff, travel speed, deposition-related calculations, and

other fabrication mathematics. The small format reduces the psychological distance between 'math class'

and shop work by presenting mathematics as a tool for making, fitting, measuring, and verifying.

The Welding Laboratory as an Application Environment

The welding laboratory is where retrieved knowledge becomes observable performance. Students can

be asked to apply recently tested concepts while selecting electrodes, setting polarity, establishing

shielding gas flow, interpreting a drawing, measuring a joint, preparing material, selecting parameters,

producing a weld, or evaluating the finished work.

Instructor observation and practical rubrics provide another feedback cycle. Errors in the shop can be

connected back to the underlying concept and then reintroduced through later retrieval.

Teaching by Testing shares important features with mastery-learning models: instruction is followed

by formative assessment, corrective activity, and another opportunity to demonstrate understanding.

Winget and Persky describe mastery learning as an instructional approach in which learners progress

through instruction, formative assessment, corrective activity, and reassessment. This sequence closely

parallels the corrective and recursive character of Teaching by Testing.

The framework does not require that every learner progress at exactly the same pace, but it does

emphasize that misunderstanding should trigger correction and another opportunity to retrieve and apply

the concept.

Relationship to Retrieval Practice

Research on retrieval practice provides a strong theoretical basis for the testing component. Roediger

and Karpicke demonstrated that taking memory tests can improve long-term retention compared with

additional study. The important mechanism is retrieval itself: attempting to bring information to mind

changes later accessibility.

Dunlosky and colleagues reviewed widely used learning techniques and rated practice testing and

distributed practice as high-utility techniques. Teaching by Testing incorporates both ideas when

questions are revisited across time rather than confined to a single unit examination.

Low-Stakes Versus High-Stakes Testing

The word 'testing' can imply anxiety, grading pressure, or punitive evaluation. That is not the intended

instructional character of Teaching by Testing. Most retrieval events should be brief, frequent, corrective,

and proportionate in stakes. Students need enough accountability to take retrieval seriously without

turning every encounter into a major examination.

High-stakes examinations may still be required for course evaluation, certification preparation, or

institutional assessment, but they serve a different purpose from the daily instructional testing cycle.

Integration of Cognitive and Psychomotor Learning

Welding competence combines cognitive and psychomotor performance. A student can know the

definition of work angle without maintaining it, or produce an acceptable bead without being able to

explain why a parameter change matters. Teaching by Testing seeks to connect these domains.

A concept can first be retrieved verbally or in writing, then demonstrated physically, then evaluated in

the finished weld. Conversely, a shop problem can become the stimulus for a later test question. This

reciprocal movement between knowledge and action is central to the model.

Observed Educational Outcomes

Practitioner observations associated with the development of Teaching by Testing suggest improved

technical learning in several areas, including reading comprehension, mathematics and numeracy literacy,

interpretation of welding symbols and blueprints. These observations are important as the origin of the

framework, but they should not be presented as proof of causal effectiveness.

A formal evaluation is needed to determine the magnitude, reliability, and generalizability of these

outcomes.

Proposed Teaching by Testing Instructional Cycle

1. Introduce a small technical concept.

2. Represent the concept visually.

3. Explain it orally.

4. Demonstrate it directly or through video/instructional technology.

5. Provide concise written information.

6. Require retrieval through multiple-choice and/or short written-response questions.

7. When a technical reference is assigned, require the learner to record the source location supporting

the answer.

8. Review correct answers and explain misconceptions.

9. Connect the concept to technical reading and/or mathematics when appropriate.

10. Require physical application in the welding or fabrication laboratory.

11. Observe performance and provide feedback.

12. Reintroduce the concept cumulatively in later testing and practice.

13. Require transfer to a new or more complex problem.

Example Application: Shielded Metal Arc Welding

A short SMAW instructional sequence might introduce the purpose of electrode classification,

polarity, welding position, current range, work angle, travel angle, arc length, and travel speed. Students

would see and discuss examples, retrieve the information in short questions, review correct answers, and

then use the information during equipment setup and welding.

Later questions could combine variables: given a joint, position, electrode classification, and WPS

requirement, what setup or action is appropriate? The student is then moving from recall toward

application and transfer.

A PHAW-based open-book assessment can extend this sequence by requiring the student to record the

edition, section, and page or other answer location used. The student is therefore practicing both retrieval

and the ability to navigate a professional welding reference. This documentation also gives the instructor

evidence of the student's research path and creates an opportunity to correct weak source-selection habits

as well as incorrect technical answers.

Example Application: Welding Symbols and Blueprints

Students can first learn the parts of the welding symbol, the role of the arrow and reference line,

arrow-side and other-side significance, common basic weld symbols, dimensions, supplementary

student to identify exactly what a drawing is communicating.

The next stage is physical application: the student receives a fabrication drawing, identifies the

required joint and weld, lays out and fits the material, performs the weld, and compares the finished work

with the drawing requirements. The symbol is therefore not an isolated classroom graphic; it becomes an

instruction that produces a physical result.

Implications for Career-Technical Education

Although developed in welding education, the framework is applicable to other career-technical

disciplines in which learners must integrate technical knowledge with procedural and physical

performance. Electrical, automotive, machining, construction, HVAC, manufacturing, and allied technical

programs all contain terminology, measurements, diagrams, safety rules, process parameters, and

troubleshooting relationships that can be taught through repeated retrieval and application.

The model is particularly suited to programs in which students benefit from short instructional cycles

embedded within laboratory work rather than long separations between lecture, examination, and practice.

Proposed Research Agenda

Teaching by Testing should be evaluated as a practitioner-developed framework rather than described

as an already proven intervention. A useful study could compare conventional instruction with a Teaching

by Testing implementation while holding course content and major performance expectations as constant

as practicable.

Potential outcome measures include:

14. Welding theory assessment scores.

15. Delayed retention of technical knowledge.

16. Technical reading comprehension.

17. Mathematics and numeracy performance.

18. Weld-symbol interpretation.

19. Blueprint and fabrication-drawing interpretation.

20. Welding-process selection and parameter reasoning.

21. Practical welding performance using standardized rubrics.

22. Equipment setup and operational knowledge.

23. Safety knowledge and application.

24. Transfer to unfamiliar workplace or fabrication scenarios.

25. Course completion and student retention.

A stronger design would include pre-instruction measures, post-instruction measures, and delayed

testing. Practical performance should be evaluated with standardized rubrics, and student-identifiable data

should be protected according to institutional requirements. Qualitative student and instructor feedback

could help explain how learners experience the frequent retrieval-and-correction cycle.

Teaching by Testing is best understood as an integrated instructional architecture rather than a claim

that testing alone teaches welding. Its distinguishing feature is the deliberate connection of small-step

instruction, retrieval, corrective feedback, cumulative repetition, technical reading, mathematics, and

practical application.

The framework also addresses a common problem in technical education: students may encounter the

same knowledge in disconnected forms. A fraction appears in mathematics, a dimension appears on a

blueprint, a weld size appears in a symbol, and a measurement appears at the fabrication table. Teaching

by Testing deliberately reconnects these encounters so the learner recognizes them as parts of one

technical system.

The approach is compatible with research supporting retrieval practice, practice testing, distributed

practice, formative correction, and mastery-oriented instruction. Its specific implementation in welding

and CTE, however, warrants systematic study.

Conclusion

Teaching by Testing begins with a simple proposition: a test does not have to mark the end of

learning. Properly designed, it can become part of learning itself.

The student retrieves an idea, discovers what is understood and what is not, verifies the source, corrects

the misunderstanding, and applies the knowledge. Then the process begins again. With repetition, isolated

facts begin to connect. Technical vocabulary becomes technical understanding. Mathematics becomes

measurement. Symbols become fabrication instructions. Theory becomes a weld.

That transformation—from knowing something to being able to use it—is the purpose of career-technical

education. Teaching by Testing meets learners where they are through a deliberate blend of instructional

modes, but it continually asks them to move forward: to retrieve, verify, correct, perform, evaluate, and

try again until knowledge becomes increasingly independent performance.

Teaching by Testing does not require an institution to purchase another platform, abandon an existing

curriculum, or radically restructure a course. An instructor can begin with one concept, one short retrieval

activity, one discussion of the answers, and one small performance task that asks students to demonstrate

what they have learned.

Teach something. Ask for it back. Correct it. Apply it. Return to it. Then watch what the student can do.

An Invitation to the Reader

Teaching by Testing is offered not as a finished prescription, but as a practical instructional framework

for consideration, application, and continued evaluation. If these ideas resonate with your own experience

as an educator, consider trying the method in your classroom, laboratory, shop, or career-technical

program.

Begin small. Teach one concept. Ask students to retrieve it. Review and correct their understanding.

When appropriate, ask them to locate and verify the information in an authoritative technical source. Then

give them a small performance task that requires them to put that knowledge to work. Observe what

happens. Revisit the concept later and ask for it again.

works and what does not. Most importantly, consider whether repeated cycles of retrieval, correction,

verification, and hands-on application help your students move from simply encountering information

toward understanding it, using it, and ultimately mastering it.

Teaching by Testing meets learners where they are - but continually challenges them to move forward.

I invite you to try it.

That is Teaching by Testing.

References

Horvath, J. C. (2026). Written testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and

Transportation. Testimony on educational technology, cognition, attention, and learning.

Roediger, H. L., III, & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves

long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249-255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-

9280.2006.01693.x

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving

students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and

educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266

Winget, M., & Persky, A. M. (2022). A practical review of mastery learning. American Journal of

Pharmaceutical Education, 86(10), 8906. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe8906