Impact of Collaborative Testing on Student Performance and Satisfaction in a Chiropractic Science Course

Student Attitudes, Satisfaction, and Learning in a Collaborative Testing Environment*

“…9,10,42 These inconsistent significant differences between the two cohorts regarding the quizzes and the unit examinations relative to the subsequent final examination may be related to the length of the final examination, higher stress level for the perceived difficulty of a "final," total course points prior to final examination, or length of the academic term. 10,11 Researchers have also opined that as students' overall scores increased during the term based on the collaborative testing, there may have been a tendency for students in the collaborative testing groups to prepare less for the final and study for other courses instead. 10,42 In this project, the cohorts were members of two separate classrooms, as similar as availability permitted.…”

“…5,6,8,11,14,15,18,19,[24][25][26][27] As in the aforementioned studies, the experimental cohort of the current project differed from the control cohort. In fact, the collaborative testing group reported a decrease in test anxiety.…”

“…18 Results from student attitude surveys confirm that collaborative testers have more positive attitudes toward the testing process in general compared to students who take assessments individually. 11,[19][20][21] It should be noted, however, that when students are exposed to traditional teaching methods but tested in a collaborative manner, they may not perform as well on higher-level theory questions even if performance on lower-level concept questions is improved. 11,19 While researching the effects of collaborative testing on test performance without prior collaborative learning, Breedlove and colleagues reported that the effects of collaborative testing were directly related to the level of cognitive processing required by the test question.…”

“…11,[19][20][21] It should be noted, however, that when students are exposed to traditional teaching methods but tested in a collaborative manner, they may not perform as well on higher-level theory questions even if performance on lower-level concept questions is improved. 11,19 While researching the effects of collaborative testing on test performance without prior collaborative learning, Breedlove and colleagues reported that the effects of collaborative testing were directly related to the level of cognitive processing required by the test question. 8 In the absence of prior collaborative learning, students reportedly performed better on collaborative tests which incorporated lower-level cognitive processing (ie, knowledge-recall questions such as fill-in-the-blank or matching), while no performance improvement was noted for higherorder, theory-based questions (applications, inferences, conclusions).…”

“…23 Predictably, collaborative testing has been reported to have value in the reduction of test anxiety. 5,6,8,11,14,15,18,19,[24][25][26][27] While some degree of angst may be valuable in preparing for a test, the test should not become an anxiety-driven event. Higher levels of anxiety may interfere with optimal learning (and consequently lower grades), which may lead to negative emotional and physical consequences.…”