- Year 2018
- NSF Award #1660746
- Registration Current Noyce Scholar
- First Name Kevin
- Last Name Rosario
- Institution University of North Florida
- School Name and District Currently Teaching Duval
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to discover the impacts of an interdependent class-based exam on student-to-student interactions. The research subjects were 9th grade urban high school students within Jacksonville. Two Earth Space Science courses were given a class-based assessment with observations made of the student interactions during the preceding review. The exam was self-created based off individual standards of the Oceans unit of the course. A test bank of questions was created and each student received two questions from the bank. Each student then contributed the same percentage towards one singular grade, thus if one student got a question correct then the entire class was given credit for it. The exam was not open-book nor group based; each student worked independently on their given questions. The singular grade created stakes for the students, emphasized their interdependence, and inspired cooperation.
The findings indicate that there was an increase in student interdependence, and that the exam still provided an accurate view of the class’s understanding of a unit. However, the exam format is too simplistic to be used as a unit assessment, and the lack of data on a single student’s progress or understanding goes against district values. As such the format is best suited to the smaller, more prevalent quiz format. This allows the cooperative atmosphere to be reinforced more often while not sacrificing the student data gleamed from the larger unit assessments.
