PERC 2015 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | Collaboration or copying? Student behavior during two-phase exams with individual and team phases |
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| Abstract: | In a two-phase exam, students take the exam twice: once individually, and a second time working in teams. Proponents of such exams hope that during the team phase, students will meaningfully discuss questions they disagreed upon during the individual phase by sharing their reasoning, challenging each other, and reaching consensus. Proponents fear that students will uncritically adopt the majority answer or follow the team member they perceive as best. To investigate the preponderance of these behaviors, we use students' individual- and team-phase responses from the final exams of four different introductory physics courses to infer teams' answer-selection dynamics. We also characterize individual- to team-phase improvement rates and identify factors that correlate with improvement. Our particular two-phase exam implementation is especially conducive to analysis because it encourages but does not require teams to agree on a common answer, and allows students to signal uncertainty by "hedging their bets" for partial credit. |
| Abstract Type: | Contributed Poster Presentation |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Ian D. Beatty University of North Carolina at Greensboro PO Box 26170 Physics & Astronomy, 321 Petty Bldg Greensboro, NC 27402-6170 Phone: 336.256.8600 Fax: 336.334.5865 |
