Class Participation: How it Affects Results on Examinations

Abstract

This article reports on a study to determine whether in-class participation helped students improve their scores on take-home essay examinations. The study included four sections of legal environment classes and two sections of law of commercial transactions classes. In three sections, points were given for in-class participation. Participation was not encouraged in the other three sections. Results indicate that participation in less technical classes (legal environment) may have benefitted the section as a whole, while not having an incremental effect on test scores of individual participants. Participation in more technical classes (law of commercial transactions) did not provide significant results for either individuals or the section. The effects of active participation, therefore, may depend on students' preparation prior to coming to class and the technical nature of the class.