Modelling Performance Improvement and Switching Behaviour in Team Learning

Abstract

Accounting educators and agencies have sought to incorporate team learning activities into conventional learning methods. The readiness-assurance process (RAP) of team learning, in which students take quizzes first as individuals and second as members of student teams, has been shown to be effective in this regard. We analyse the RAP with a fixed-effects regression model to identify the factors that contribute to performance improvement and we use ordered logit regression to estimate, probabilistically, switching behaviour within student teams. A longitudinal study was conducted over the course of a semester in which 101 undergraduate accounting students, comprising 22 teams, completed six quizzes. Within-team knowledge disparity was shown to be a significant indicator of performance improvement, and individuals appeared more likely to switch their answers after the first quiz. There were no significant effects for either performance or switching associated with demographic measures of sex and English fluency. Implications for accounting educators are discussed.Team learning, readiness-assurance process, student teams, group-performance measurements, group-structure effects,

Choice Shifts in Small Groups Engaging in Repeated Intellective Tasks

“…That is, the groups were generally successful in identifying their knowledgeable members and matching their final responses to them. The findings of H1 and H2 are minor variations on a pair of previously supported hypotheses that were tested in Reinig, Whittenburg, and Horowitz (2009) and that are re-affirmed here. And the support of H2 above and beyond H1 may suggest that status distance should be conceptualized and operationalized as an interval measure rather than an ordinal measure.…”

Accounting education literature review (2006–2009)

“…The authors include the survey in an appendix. Reinig, Whittenburg, and Horowitz (2009) examine quiz performance in the readiness-assurance process (RAP) of team learning. RAP requires students to take a quiz individually, which is weighted more in their grade computation, and then again with a small group.…”

Does attitude towards one's group impact student performance in a team-exam environment? A longitudinal analysis

“…The exploration resulted in Reinig et al (2009), a longitudinal study showing, among other things, that within-team knowledge disparity is a significant indicator of performance improvement and that students, seemingly becoming more comfortable with their group and the RAP, are more likely to switch their answers after the 1st quiz, with the low-performing students being particular beneficiaries of the approach. As friends and colleagues are wont to do, we discussed the phenomenon and decided to explore it formally.…”