How gender composition and group formation impact the effectiveness of group work in two-stage collaborative exams

Two-stage collaborative exams are an increasingly popular form of formative assessment which have shown promising results in promoting student learning. While the benefit two-stage is well researched, there no clear consensus on best way implementing them—specifically with respect to forming groups. In some studies students self-select their groups, and others they assigned by instructor (either randomly or a specific grouping algorithm). Research has that performance satisfaction group learning situations improves when faculty, not students, select Furthermore, demonstrated students’ benefits from working groups diverse styles, abilities, gender, race. this study, we report controlled experiment conducted during exam introductory physics course at Harvard University. For stage exam, half were formed (based balancing gender previous exams) other selected. We compared both individual for instructor-formed versus student-formed also surveyed experiences exam. found female perform better two-part (especially students) felt more comfortable speaking up “more effective productive” receptive ideas” than This study provides important insights into practice implementation exams.Received 25 August 2022Accepted 28 October 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.020137Published American Physical Society under terms Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution work must maintain attribution author(s) published article’s title, journal citation, DOI.Published SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasInstructional strategiesLearning environmentPhysics Education