Collaborative Team Testing To Support Individual Learning: Can Teamwork Motivate Learning?

Abstract

A challenge in the contemporary classroom is that many students do not prepare for class. While technology is a boon in the classroom it can often be an apathy-fostering distraction. To encourage greater student preparation a course was designed with 4 quizzes to be taken first as individuals and then as members of predetermined teams. We reasoned that students knowing they would be quizzed on the chapter material would be motivated to prepare for the quiz on the assigned day. It was hypothesized that team spirit would lead students to higher levels of performance. We reasoned that students, believing other members of the team were depending on them, would be motivated to prepare for the quiz. While a majority showed no improvement, a minority who expressed team spirit did show gains.