Collaborative Testing and Test Performance

Abstract

Abstract Does collaboration on a test, independent of prior collaborative learning, affect test performance? In almost all the descriptions, demonstrations, and studies of collaboration testing and academic achievement, the effect of collaborative learning on achievement is conflated with the effect of collaborative testing alone. The results of this study show that collaborative testing alone has a significant positive association with test performance that varies by the level of cognitive processing reflected in the test question. Introduction Collaborative learning techniques have been widely used at the primary and secondary levels of education for some time now. The effects of collaborative learning are numerous and generalizable across different populations and settings. Perhaps in reaction to this growing body of evidence and because more emphasis is being placed on quality of teaching, increasing numbers of higher education faculty have come to experiment with and adopt collaborative learning. A review of the evidence for collaborative learning reveals than in almost all the descriptions, demonstrations, and studies of collaboration, the effect of collaborative learning on performance is conflated with the possible effect of collaborative testing alone on student achievement. That is, most studies present cases where students either engaged in both collaborative learning and collaborative testing, or more commonly, engaged collaborative learning but were evaluated individually. As a result, there currently is little evidence or knowledge of the effect of collaboration on test performance independent of prior collaborative learning experience or training. This study seeks to answer the question of whether collaborative testing alone affects academic achievement, that is, when students do not also engage in collaborative learning. Literature Review Evidence of collaborative testing effects is sparse. By contrast, a large body of research has documented beneficial effects of collaborative learning across diverse populations and disciplines. Studies have found positive effects among elementary school children (Billington, 1994; Fuchs, Fuchs, Karns, Hamlet, Katzaroff, & Dutka, 1998), developmental students (Ley, Hodges & Young, 1995), and college students (Giraud & Enders, 2000; Gokhale, 1995; Grzelkowski, 1987; Guest & Murphy, 2000; Hanshaw, 1982; Helmericks, 1993; Morgan, 2003; Muir & Tracy, 1999; Nowak, Miller, & Washburn, 1996; Rau & Heyl, 1990; Reinhart, 1999; Russo & Warren, 1999; Sernau, 1995; Zimbardo, Butler, & Wolfe, 2003). Significant effects have been found across disciplines including business (Nowak et al, 1996), education (Morgan, 2003; Muir & Tracy, 1999), English composition (Russo & Warren, 1999), industrial technology (Gokhale, 1995), psychology (Guest & Murphy, 2000; Ley et al, 1995; Zimbardo et al, 2003), science (Hanshaw, 1982), sociology (Grzelkowski, 1987; Helmericks, 1993; Rau & Heyl, 1990; Reinhart, 1999; Sernau, 1995), and statistics (Giraud & Enders, 2000). These studies and others find that collaborative learning leads to gains in both academic and nonacademic areas of student development. Among the many academic gains are improved performance on exams, greater retention of information, greater transfer of knowledge, and increased complexity of thought (Gamson, 1994; Johnson, Johnson, & Stanne, 2000). Additionally, collaborative learning fosters cooperation and connections with others (Muir & Tracy, 1999; Rau & Heyl, 1990), develops skills critical to workplace success such as team building and teamwork skills (Nowak et al, 1996; Russo & Warren, 1999), humanizes the learning experience (Grzelkowski, 1987), eliminates cheating (Grzelkowski, 1987; Ley et al, 1995), and is associated with higher levels of student satisfaction and motivation to learn (Chickering & Gamson, 1991; Fuchs et al, 1998; Giraud & Enders, 2000; Semau, 1995; Slavin, 1980). …