Application of Pop Quiz Method in Teaching Biostatistics to Postgraduate Midwifery Students and Its Effect on Their Statistics Anxiety, Test Anxiety and Academic Achievement: A QuasiExperimental Study with Control Group
,
Abstract
Introduction: Anxiety in students is a challenge of educational systems. The present study was conducted to investigate the efficiency of Pop Quiz (unannounced formative tests) in teaching biostatistics to postgraduate midwifery students and its effects on their statistics anxiety, test anxiety and statistical analysis skills.
Methods: This quasi-experimental study conducted during the first semester of the academic year of 2019-2020 in the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. The MSc midwifery students were divided into two separate classes. One of the classes was randomly selected for educational intervention (Pop Quiz). Teaching via the lecture method considered as control method. Test anxiety and statistical anxiety questionnaires were completed by the students in both groups before the educational intervention, during and at the end of semester. The final exam score considered as the statistical skills score.Data were analyzed in SPSS 22 using Fisher's exact test and GEE model.
Results: Thirty eight MSC midwifery students (12 in intervention group and 26 in comparison group)were recruited in this study. The mean and standard deviation of the exam score of students in lecture and Pop Quiz groups were respectively 14.43 ± 3.80 and 15.95 ± 2.79 (P=0.182). The patterns of change in test anxiety score differed significantly over time between the two teaching methods (P = 0.003). Although, there was a decreasing trend in mean score of statistics anxiety scores in Pop Quiz group in comparison with lecture based group, but there were not statistically significant differences.
Conclusion: Applying Pop Quiz to teaching biostatistics reduces test anxiety and statistics anxiety and increases statistical analysis skills in postgraduate midwifery students
2. Yazici K. The relationship between learning style, test anxiety and academic achievement. Universal Journal of Educational Research. 2017;5(1):61-71.
3. Sharifi HP. Performance Measurement in the Teaching-Learning Process. Conference on Education Reforms. Qom: Tebian Cultural and Information Institute.
4. Zarei E. Effect of descriptive evaluation on creativity and collaboration learning and academic performance of boys and girls in third grade elementary school students in Bandar Abbas. Journal of Educational Sciences. 2009; 5:79-92.
5. Doolittle AE. Classroom assessment: What teachers need to know. JSTOR;2009.
6. Popham WJ. Classroom assessment: What teachers need to know. Allyn & Bacon, A Viacom Company, 160 Gould St., Needham Heights, MA 02194; World Wide Web: http://www. abacon. com; 1999. [Book]
7. Kamuche FU. The effects of unannounced quizzes on student performance: further evidence. College Teaching Methods & Styles Journal (CTMS). 2007 Apr 1;3(2):21-6.
8. Soleimani H, Najafi L. The noticing function of classroom pop quizzes and formative tests in the uptake of lexical items of EFL intermediate learners. International Journal of English Linguistics. 2012 Aug 1;2(4):73.
9. Thorne BM. Extra credit exercise: A painless pop quiz. Teaching of Psychology. 2000 Aug.
10. Tariq SG, Johnson AM, Thrush CR, Woods MB, Johnson VA, Clardy JA. Pop quizzes: evidence based strategy for medical students. Journal of Medical Science Educator. 2007;17(2).
11. Steele JE. Effect of essay-style lecture quizzes on student performance on anatomy and physiology exams. Bioscene. 2003;29(4):15-20.
12. Azorlosa JL, Renner CH. The Effect of Announced Quizzes on Exam Performance. Journal of Instructional Psychology. 2006 Dec 1;33(4).
13. Ali ZM, Shahabuddin FA, Abidin NZ, Suradi NR, Mustafa Z. Teamwork culture in improving the quality of learning basic statistics course. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2011 Jan 1;18: 326-34.
14. Paltoglou AE, Morys-Carter WL, Davies EL. From Anxiety to Confidence: Exploring the Measurement of Statistics Confidence and its Relationship with Experience, Knowledge and Competence within Psychology Undergraduate Students. Psychology Learning & Teaching. 2019 Jul;18(2):165-78.
15. Paechter M, Macher D, Martskvishvili K, Wimmer S, Papousek I. Mathematics anxiety and statistics anxiety. Shared but also unshared components and antagonistic contributions to performance in statistics. Frontiers in psychology. 2017 Jul 24;8: 1196.
16. Sarason IG. Test anxiety and the self-disclosing coping model. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 1975 Apr;43(2):148.
17. Rekabdar Q, Soleimani B. Factor Structure of Statistical Anxiety Scale and its Relationship with Individual Characteristics of Students of Islamic Azad University of Abadan. Educational Science first year Number three 2008 124-103.103-24. [Persian]
18. Ali I, Iqbal HM. Effect of formative assessment on students’ achievement in science. World Applied Sciences Journal. 2013;26(5):677-87.
19. Kamuche FU. Do weekly quizzes improve student performance?. Academic Exchange Quarterly. 2005 Sep 22;9(3):188-93.
20. Padilla-Walker LM. The impact of daily extra credit quizzes on exam performance. Teaching of Psychology. 2006 Oct;33(4):236-9.
21. Shirbagi N. Feedback in formative evaluation and its effects on a one sample of Iranian Primary Students' Achievement in Science. Pedagogika. 2007(88):99-105.
22. Brown MJ, Tallon J. The effects of pre-lecture quizzes on test anxiety and performance in a statistics course. Education. 2015 Mar 1;135(3):346-50.
23. Mard SA, Larki MS, Neisi N. The Effect of Regular Class Exams on the Final Scores of Body Fluids and Renal Physiology Course. Educational Development of Judishapur. 2014 Apr 21;5(1):59-65.
24. Piroozmanesh A, Imanipour M. The Effect of Formative Assessment on Test Anxiety of Nursing Students. Journal of Medical Education Development. 2018 Mar 10;10(28):18-26.
25. Lê ML. The use of anonymous pop-quizzes (APQs) as a tool to reinforce learning. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA. 2012 Oct;100(4):316.
26. Pan W, Tang M. Examining the effectiveness of innovative instructional methods on reducing statistics anxiety for graduate students in the social sciences. Journal of Instructional Psychology. 2004 Jun 1;31(2).
27. Quinn A. Reducing social work students' statistics anxiety. Academic Exchange Quarterly. 2006 Jun 22;10(2):167-72.
28. McGrath AL, Ferns A, Greiner L, Wanamaker K, Brown S. Reducing anxiety and increasing self-efficacy within an advanced graduate psychology statistics course. Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 2015;6(1):5.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 7 No 2 (2021) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/jbe.v7i2.6736 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Pop Quiz Biostatistics Statistics anxiety Test anxiety Midwifery | ||
| Rights and permissions | |
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
