REVERSE TWO-STAGE TESTING: A DETAILED IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Typical two-stage exams, where a student will take an individual exam and then take the same exam in a group setting, has been more utilized recently in geoscience academia. The purpose of using two-stage exams is to make the assessment environment also an opportunity to learn. In the case of the original two-stage exams, students are learning from their mistakes in the group settings. This study employs a reverse of that method where instead of taking an individual exam prior to the group exam, the students take a group exam first. This allows the students to review what they already know as well as learn something they had not known or remembered going into the exam. Then, after the group portion, they take a different, individual exam (rather than using the same exam in traditional two-stage testing). While the individual exam is different than the group, it does contain repeat questions as well as questions that build from the group portion. For example, on the group exam a question might ask for the two most convincing pieces of evidence that support the theory of continental drift. While some groups might only discuss two pieces, most groups end up discussing all the lines of evidence prior to choosing the two most convincing. Then, on the individual exam, a similar question will be posed but will ask for four lines of evidence. The discussion from the group portion should help them answer this question. The final exam grade is calculated by weighting the group at 25% and the individual at 75% (but this can be changed). This study aims to detail the methods used to build the reverse two-stage exams as well as present preliminary data taken over four semesters from final exams in introductory physical geology courses. In the future, I plan to use this type of testing for upper-level geology courses and expand the usage to all tests, not just final exams.