Enhancing Student Performance and Knowledge Retention through Two-Stage Collaborative Testing

Enhancing Student Performance and Knowledge Retention through Two-Stage Collaborative Testing

What is this Research About?

Performance anxiety, low self-confidence and delay in feedback are barriers often associated with individual testing. Two-stage collaborative testing is an assessment technique that allows students to take a test individually followed by writing the same or similar test in a group setting. It has been shown to improve student performance and retention of material on multiple choice tests, however, has not been evaluated in a long answer format. This study evaluates the effectiveness of two-stage testing on student performance and knowledge retention in multiple-choice and long-answer questions. 

What did the Researchers Do?

Researchers administered two-stage collaborative midterms to 150 undergraduate biological science students. In stage one, students individually completed a midterm composed of both multiple choice and long answer questions within 60 minutes. In stage two, students collaboratively completed a shortened version of the original midterm in small groups within 25 minutes. Researchers assessed short- and long-term retention by administering 2 unannounced tests (1 and then 6 weeks after the midterm). In these retention tests, half the questions were pulled from the individual stage, while the other half were pulled from the collaborative stage of the original midterm. 

What did the Researchers Find?

Researchers found that student performance improved by 17% in the collaborative stage of the test compared to the individual stage. These improvements were seen equally for both multiple choice and long answer questions. When considering short-term retention, collaborative testing resulted in students retaining 11% more knowledge compared to individual testing for multiple choice questions. Additionally, short- and long-term retention test scores remained the same for all questions originally administered in the collaborative stage. This demonstrates that collaborative testing improved students’ performance and retention for both multiple choice and long answer questions.  

→ How to Implement this Research in Your Classroom

Integrating two-stage collaborative testing into course assessments can improve student performance and knowledge retention for both multiple choice and long answer questions. Implement this assessment method by administering an individual test, followed by a shortened version of the original test completed collaboratively in small groups (2-5 students). Allow students to self-select groups ahead of time to ensure they are comfortable and prepared to work with one another. Allocate 2/3 of class time to the individual stage and 1/3 to the collaborative stage. Along with this, implement a grading scheme that allocates 80% of the test grade to the individual stage with the remaining 20% allocated to the collaborative stage. This scheme rewards individual preparedness while encouraging participation in the collaborative stage.  

→  Citation

Newton, G., Rajakaruna, R., Kulak, V., Albabish, W., Gilley, B. H., & Ritchie, K. (2019). Two-stage (collaborative) testing in science teaching: Does it improve grades on short-answer questions and retention of material? Journal of College Science Teaching, 48(4), https://www.jstor.org/stable/26901301  

→  Keywords

  • Two-stage Testing
  • Collaborative Testing
  • Asessment
  • Knowledge Retention 

Creative Commons by logo This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Canada License

Snapshot Writer: Brooke Adams

Snapshot Publication Date: 2024

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