2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Work in Progress: Introducing a coffee break to improve exam performance and reducing student stress in construction majors
Presented at Construction Engineering Division (CONST) Technical Session 2
Traditional exams are widely used to assess students’ acquired knowledge in engineering courses, and although traditional exams have a purpose and a role, it is also known that they bring different levels of stress and anxiety to students, which can result in an inaccurate reflection of students’ knowledge or even poor performance. Although research shows this type of exam may not be adequate for all types of students, little is known about how to improve traditional exam assessment experiences. This pilot study aims to design an intervention—a coffee break during an exam—to help reduce students’ stress and anxiety levels and improve their exam performance. To assess the intervention, the authors used a qualitative approach to learn about students’ perceptions of the impact on their stress levels of including a coffee break in the exam. Open- and closed-ended questions were conducted during four phases: the days prior to the exam, and during the examination—before, during, and after the coffee break. Results of this pilot study suggest that introducing a coffee break during a traditional exam lowers students’ levels of stress, reduces their fear of failure, and improves students’ performance. The authors discuss the possible factors driving the results, next steps and explore the avenues academia could take to form better assessment methods. Implications for research and practice are provided.
-
Vanessa Guerra University of Virginia
-
Dr. Miguel Andres Guerra
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7496-3753
Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ
[biography]
Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.