Abstract:

This case study will show what types of study habits, classroom interaction and perceptions of own learning are predictive of high attainment on a course, and how educators can help encourage such habits in all students. Attendees will learn how consistency, engagement and preparation can be leveraged to promote improved summative performance.

Classroom response systems, feedback, preparation and maintaining a growth mindset are often encouraged with a view to improving student learning and attainment of the course Learning Objectives. Many of these may seem to be worthy in themselves, but which are the most effective?

To investigate this, we monitor the responses to classroom polls in a series of 6 workshops of a large first year undergraduate finance course with over 1000 students, asking students at the start of the workshop whether, and to what extent, they have prepared for the workshop, and at the end of the workshop, about their own perceived increase in learning that day. We also use in-class quizzes as a formative assessment tool, asking all students one quantitative and one qualitative question each workshop, recording their responses. We link this to a pre-course demographic questionnaire, and a pre-course survey on how they feel about the course before its commencement. Finally, we track their final exam results. Students are traceable through the study, though anonymised from the investigators.

We predict the odds of a student being in the top 30% and 20% of the class on the final examination, and find:
1. Female students, and students from East Asia, are significantly more likely to be represented amongst the highest-performing.
2. Preparation before the workshops, of any kind, strongly predicts high attainment. Interestingly, the most significant indicator is preparation at the highest level, having looked at all the questions, and wanting to know that they have the right answer.
3. How students feel about the course before starting it, has no measurable influence on final attainment, so that negative feelings before a course are by no means fatal to successful completion.
4. Students who report significantly more learning, at the very highest level (I have gained a lot of new knowledge), is very strongly predictive of high achievement, but the other levels of perceived learning are not.
5. Simply taking part in the classroom polls in the second half of the course is very highly predictive of high attainment on the exam; indeed, when analysed together, the effects of participation in the first half of the course, and getting the answers correct when polled, have no predictive power.
6. Students contributing their opinions of any kind in the second half of the course regarding their own preparation and learning, was significantly predictive of the highest attainment; by contrast, this was not the case when responding in the first half of the course.
7. These conclusions are identical, whether we examine the highest 30% of student attainment on the final examination, or the highest 20%.

We add to the literature by examining multiple measures of student engagement and participation simultaneously, and at repeated intervals through a course, rather than taking one snapshot of general perception. Consistent and persistent engagement, even of the most basic kind, seem to be most important, and high attainment may stimulated most by the development of good study skills and resilience through the term.

Keywords:

Formative assessment, student engagement, perceptions of learning, enhancing attainment.