James Lerch

During an IB economics exam today I gave students 2 minutes in the middle of the 80 min exam to get up and talk to their peers.

The mood lightened, positive energy was restored, and students later said that it helped.

Because students were writing long responses to questions, I doubt there is much need to worry about cheating.

On balance I would say “the juice was worth the squeeze”; the benefits outweighed the cost.

Has anyone else tried this? #edutwitter

Nov 22, 2022 at 8:38pmWeb
Show threadDoug HoltonNov 23, 2022
@atwright coincidentally, @weblearning shared this post where an instructor let students talk with each other for 5 minutes at the beginning of an exam: "Friends without Pens"
https://higheredpraxis.substack.com/p/tip-reducing-exam-anxiety
Some other before-exam techniques for reducing student test anxiety include stress reappraisal and expressive writing: https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/3168265/pages/about-anxiety-reappraisal-interventions?module_item_id=50271951
@edutooters #EdDev #EdResearch #Teaching #EdPsy #StudentSuccess
Tip: Reducing Exam Anxiety

"Friends without Pens" gives students time to chat about the exam before starting.

Tips for Teaching Professors
Show threadAn AgoraNov 23, 2022
@dougholton
https://anagora.org/EdDev
https://anagora.org/EdPsy
https://anagora.org/EdResearch
https://anagora.org/StudentSuccess
https://anagora.org/Teaching
[[eddev]] - anagora.org

The Agora is a crowdsourced distributed knowledge graph: anagora.org.

Show thread@weblearningNov 24, 2022
@dougholton @atwright @edutooters Thanks Doug for threading my Tweet back here into a Mastodon toot. I was interested to see the replies on Twitter, and they all involved big changes to the format and practices of exams. I’m not sure that we will ever see the end of this kind of the exam. But I do think we could make the time a little less arduous. Whether it be a break in between, for a stretch, or a chat as suggested in the “friend without pens” article
Show threadTeacherPazNov 26, 2022
@dougholton @atwright @weblearning @edutooters
Interesting 👏🏼👏🏼
Show threadMichael PorterNov 23, 2022
@atwright I like this! I'm really curious as to how my IB Chem students would have responded to this. I have the impression that they would be freaked out at the loss of time and wouldn't want to do it... But maybe I'm wrong - interested in what others think.