Title: Improving standardised university exam scores through problem-based learning

Authors: Kenneth David Strang

Addresses: State University of New York, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, USA; University of Phoenix and APPC Research, 1 Market St., 2007 NSW, Australia

Abstract: The researcher designed a quasi-experiment at a public university to evaluate how problem-based learning, prior ability and demographic factors influenced student scores on the standardised exam major field test for business. The participants were 135 senior students graduating from a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration programme. Descriptive statistics, validity tests, correlation, chi square goodness of fit, best subsets regression, general linear model regression, and analysis of covariance were applied to test the hypotheses that SAT, GPA, gender and pedagogy influenced exam score. A new finding was that applying problem-based learning improved standardised exam scores.

Keywords: standardised exams; SAT; GPA; grade point average; problem-based learning; management in education; university exam scores; PBL; business education; prior ability; demographics; student scores; gender; pedagogy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2014.062961

International Journal of Management in Education, 2014 Vol.8 No.3, pp.281 - 301

Published online: 26 Jul 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article