Better together? Enhancing students performance in chemical kinetics through pair-test assessment

Fluency in understanding chemical kinetics is widely recognized as critical in learning further concepts of chemical reaction and chemical process. However, the traditional way of learning does not foster the desirable results, thus implementation of active learning could improve students’ achievement. In this study, we evaluate the impact of the pair- test over individual assessment approaches in active learning on grade scores. The participants of this study consist of two different cohorts of second-year undergraduate students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The students were evaluated using multiple-choice questions related to reaction rates and order of reaction topics. The findings suggest that majority of the students performed well by undertaking the test together with their partner as compared to the individual method. Besides, students reported pleasant experiences in the pair-test assessment, which also improves their motivation in further learning the topics. However, several students do not show significant improvement when comparing their pair-test over individual results. This might be due to the disagreement over the answer and the time constraint to instill teamworking among the partners. Overall, the pair-test approach received positive feedback and should be considered as an alternative assessment in teaching challenging topics such as chemical kinetics.