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The ultimate goal of nursing education is to produce competent, skilled practitioners. Nursing faculty set high standards of excellence for students and administer tests to assess whether those standards have been met. Traditional testing, in which students complete a paper-and-pencil examination in 1 hour, sitting quietly in a room with 20 to 30 other students, is the norm for most nursing programs. Test taking is an individual effort, and any conferring with a neighbor would be considered cheating and handled in the most stringent of manners. However, this traditional method of testing has identifiable shortcomings. This article discusses a pilot study that explored a collaborative method of testing as a viable teachinglearning tool, as well as a valid method of measuring students' progress in a nursing program.
Overview
With traditional testing, the message to students is apparent - helping a fellow student or asking for help is cheating. This attitude sends a negative message that conflicts with the precepts of collaboration that students are expected to learn. Conventional testing also automatically creates a ranking of students that results in a few "winners" and many "losers" (Phillips, 1988). Other disadvantages of the conventional testing method include poor student performance due to test anxiety, language barriers, and/or cultural bias, as well as poorly written tests (Klisch, 1994). Finally, testing is a timeconsuming process. The time spent for testing could be used more effectively by turning it into a learning experience.
Health care is changing, and along with it, changes are occurring in nursing education. The need for nursing students to acquire critical thinking, cornmunication, and collaborative skills is unarguable. It is the authors' contention that collaborative testing is a useful tool in promoting these skills and an effective measurement of students' achievement. Collaborative testing can be defined as a method of cooperative learning in which students work together but turn in their own work. Consensus is not a requirement in this type of testing. This pilot study determined whether or not the use of collaborative testing would teach critical thinking and collaborative skills effectively and enhance students' test-taking skills, while decreasing their test anxiety, without lowering the standards of nursing education.
Literature Review
Cooperative learning is a widely used instructional method that involves the democratic process, academic...