Enhancing Students Learning and Assessment through Positive Reinforcement

Students’ understanding of class material, and knowledge retention are assessed through homework, exams, and a host of other methods. None of these forms of assessment is intrinsically paramount to the others; however, the benefits depend on how well they are used. A good assessment depends on the purpose and learning objectives, and one way of maximizing the benefits of assessment is to involve students in the assessment methodology. This paper evaluates the benefits of having students prepare some of the questions for their final exams. Generally, students put in more effort when they understand that they are in charge. Each student in a class of 28 was asked to prepare five questions each, which must be multiple-choice, true or false (not more than 2), or fill-in-the-blanks. They were made to understand that 75% of questions for the final exam will entirely be from the questions prepared by the class. It was hypothesized that this will strengthen students\u27 engagement with class material, and their colleagues, which may aid them to achieve a better exam score. The instructor, acted as the expert system in this case to ascertain the quality of the questions. Unlike the orthodox exams, which are entirely prepared by faculties, it is believed that this may serve as positive reinforcement for students. Thus, knowing that the bulk of the exams questions were prepared by their colleagues, the desire to get a good score will be high, and ultimately translate to better material engagement and better exam score