How Does Utilizing Clicker Questions for Exam Preparation Affect Test-Taking Anxiety in Human Anatomy Students in a Flipped Classroom?

Human Anatomy and Physiology Society. PO Box 2945, LeGrange, GA 30421. e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: https://www.hapsweb.org/page/hapsed_home

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Educational Technology; Audience Response Systems; Test Construction; Anatomy; Human Body; Community College Students; Test Anxiety; Teaching Methods; Active Learning; Flipped Classroom; Evidence Based Practice; Student Attitudes; Instructional Effectiveness; Blended Learning; Coping

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While active learning strategies have been promoted by researchers as practices to increase performance and retention, some practices have been shown to have unintended negative effects on students such as increasing anxiety. Students often report the debilitating effect of test-taking anxiety on their performance. This study investigated the use of an exam preparation process utilizing clicker questions to help human anatomy students at a community college cope with test-taking anxiety by practicing answering timed questions and regularly confronting the specific impact of anxiety on their performance. Students completed early and late semester surveys which measured self-reported test-taking anxiety levels and social anxiety in response to various teaching practices. There was no difference in test-taking anxiety between students who received clicker questions and students who did not. However, when comparing test taking anxiety across a subset of students who took both the early and late surveys, independent of treatment, a significant decrease in test taking anxiety was observed from the start to the end of the semester. Students also reported a change in effectiveness of teaching practices, rating lectures as effective early in the semester, while emphasizing active learning more at the end of the semester.

As Provided

2024

EJ1425758