International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Volume 2, Number 1, January 2008
Return to current issues pageResearch Article
Abstract
Designing Group Examinations to Decrease Social Loafing and Increase Learning
This study examines a method to decrease social loafing in a group examination. Students who met in teams during the semester took an exam in groups. Rules for the exam, based on the Jeopardy game show, facilitated both group and individual accountability. Feedback from students indicated that compared to a class that did not have group exams, students taking the group exam had less social loafing and had higher perceived levels of learning. Furthermore, among students taking the group exams, higher group participation was related to higher perceived performance and more positive attitudes about the exam. We developed a model for how the environment affects group processes which, in turn, affects group and individual outcomes.
Keywords: Student teams, Cooperative Learning, Group Examinations, Social Loafing, Teaching Games
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Lee Revere
University of Houston – Clear Lake
Houston, Texas, USA
revere@uhcl.edu
I received a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master of Science from Trinity University and a Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. I am currently an Associate Professor of Decision Sciences at the University of Houston–Clear Lake where I teach quantitative courses to both undergraduate and graduate students and quality courses to master-level healthcare students. I implemented the team-based Jeopardy examination in 2002 in an effort to make learning fun and assessment a positive experience. In 2003 I won the Decision Sciences Institute Instructional Innovation Award competition for the team-based Jeopardy examination. In addition to researching pedagogical approaches, my research focuses on applying quantitative methods to improve business and healthcare decisions.
Max Elden
University of Houston – Clear Lake (retired)
Houston, Texas, USA
maxelden@earthlink.net
I recently retired from the University of Houston - Clear Lake as Professor of Management and founding Director of the Teaching – Learning Enhancement Center. Prior to UHCL I was Professor of Organization and Work Life Science, University of Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway where I received the university’s Outstanding Teacher award for my lectures in Norwegian. My teaching and research interests have centered around teams and teamwork in work organizations (including classrooms) and the nature and effects of self-management / leadership in and of them. Recently I received the highest award of the Organization Behavior Teaching Society for my life time contribution to management education. I am at present engaged in a long term research project on the sustainability of transformational learning in leadership development.
Robert Bartsch
University of Houston – Clear Lake
Houston, Texas, USA
Bartsch@uhcl.edu
I received my Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. I am currently an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Houston–Clear Lake. I was the co-director for the Teaching-Learning Enhancement Center on campus and am now the Division Chair for Social and Behavioral Sciences. I teach courses in Social Psychology and Research Methods and Statistics. My current research areas include media content and effects and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Other SOTL projects currently include the effect of norms on cheating behavior, whether random or distributed practice promotes learning statistics, and increasing the internal validity of classroom demonstrations.