Does the timing of unannounced quizzes influence student behaviour in effort investment and learning output?

Abstract

The main purpose of this research is to verify whether the timing of unannounced quizzes would influence students' behaviour in effort investment and learning output. Findings suggested that: (1) students' in-class effort was the same whether pop quizzes were held at the beginning or end of the class; while students studied harder outside the classroom in the beginning-of-class pop quiz system than in the end-of-class pop quiz system; (2) students' learning output was slightly better at the beginning of the system; (3) the mixed pop quiz system was better than the other two systems in improving students' efforts and learning outputs; and (4) daily lateness was lower in the beginning-of-class pop quiz system than in the end-of-class pop quiz system. However, early departures were lower in the end-of-class pop quiz system than in the beginning-of-class pop quiz system. A comparison of these three systems indicated that the mixed pop quiz system lowered late class arrivals and early departures.