The Use of Group Quizzes in Developmental Mathematics Courses

For a period of four semesters, the possibility was explored of using a "group quiz" as a learning activity that provides a collaborative learning environment, a review of the previous week's material, and a formative assessment for both the student and the instructor. Using both quan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMathAMATYC educator Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 17 - 21
Main Author Sorensen, Ian
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges 01.09.2012
Subjects
Academic Achievement
College Faculty
College Students
Cooperative Learning
Developmental Studies Programs
Educational Environment
Formative Evaluation
Instructional Effectiveness
Interviews
Mathematics Instruction
Mathematics Tests
Outcomes of Education
Prediction
Qualitative Research
Regression (Statistics)
Retention (Psychology)
Self Evaluation (Individuals)
Statistical Analysis
Student Surveys
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Summary:For a period of four semesters, the possibility was explored of using a "group quiz" as a learning activity that provides a collaborative learning environment, a review of the previous week's material, and a formative assessment for both the student and the instructor. Using both quantitative (i.e., student surveys) and qualitative (i.e., student interviews) methods, this article explores the effectiveness of the learning activity in a college-level developmental mathematics course. In addition, a preliminary quantitative analysis will be discussed regarding the success of the quiz using success rates of classes that did and did not incorporate the learning activity. Moreover, since the student's grade for the quiz is a self-assessed score, the relationship was investigated between the self-assessed score and the outcome of exam grades using a regression study. The results demonstrate that the majority of students found the "group quiz" beneficial and desirable. The preliminary qualitative analysis showed an increase in success rates, suggesting that the activity is effective in knowledge retention. Finally, the self-assessed grade revealed a surprising correlation in predicting students' average exam scores. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)
ISSN:1947-279X