Collaborative student-to-student communication during Team-Based Learning test-taking

This study explores teams engaged in student-to-student collaborative test-taking. Participants were undergraduate students enrolled in 16-week Team-Based Learning (TBL) course who completed the Readiness Assurance Process four times throughout the semester. A mixed-methods approach incorporated the transcription of intragroup dialogue coded to measure the amount of verbal communication, nonevidence, evidence, and process dialogue to then quantitatively analyze how student ability influenced students’ collaborative test-taking interactions. Results demonstrate high-ability members’ contributions in talk time, evidence, and nonevidence to team conversation. Low-ability members’ offered similar contributions to test functionality process dialogue. Findings suggest intragroup communication plays a vital role in TBL, particularly in terms of how member ability enhances and detracts from discourse and accountability. The implications indicate that team members must feel empowered to communicate with peers to enhance team decision-making, and educators play a critical role in framing team discussions for collaborative test-taking when using TBL.