High schools implementing a new collaborative learning method have seen students achieve better test scores. While research teams have documented...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
High schools implementing a new collaborative learning method have seen students achieve better test scores. While research teams have documented these improvements across participating schools, educators remain divided on the interpretation. The central dispute: does the collaborative approach directly cause better performance, or are other factors responsible for the gains?
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the claim that the collaborative method itself causes the improvement?
Schools that implemented the collaborative method reported higher student satisfaction with their learning experience.
Control groups using traditional teaching methods in the same schools showed no improvement in test scores during the same period.
The collaborative method requires additional teacher training, which participating schools provided.
Student attendance rates increased in classes using the collaborative learning method.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'High schools implementing a new collaborative learning method have seen students achieve better test scores.' |
|
| 'While research teams have documented these improvements across participating schools, educators remain divided on the interpretation.' |
|
| 'The central dispute: does the collaborative approach directly cause better performance, or are other factors responsible for the gains?' |
|
Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: There is disagreement about whether the collaborative learning method directly causes improved test scores or whether other factors are responsible for the gains.
Argument Flow: The passage presents an observed correlation (collaborative method and better scores), notes that research has documented this pattern, then identifies the key interpretive challenge - distinguishing between direct causation and other explanatory factors.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The core issue here is distinguishing causation from correlation
- We know collaborative schools have better scores, but that could be because the collaborative method directly improves learning OR schools that adopt collaborative methods also have other advantages (better teachers, more resources, different student populations, etc.)
- To prove the method itself causes improvement, we need evidence that isolates the collaborative method while controlling for other variables
- The strongest evidence would be a comparison showing that when everything else stays the same, only the schools using the collaborative method improve
Schools that implemented the collaborative method reported higher student satisfaction with their learning experience.
✗ Incorrect
- Higher satisfaction could be a result of the collaborative method, but does not prove it caused the test score improvements
- Students might be happier for reasons unrelated to learning effectiveness
- Satisfaction and academic performance do not necessarily correlate directly
Control groups using traditional teaching methods in the same schools showed no improvement in test scores during the same period.
✓ Correct
- This provides the experimental control needed to establish causation
- If traditional method groups in the same schools showed no improvement during the same period, this isolates the collaborative method as the key variable
- Rules out school-level factors since both groups are in the same schools
- Creates the comparison needed to distinguish causation from correlation
The collaborative method requires additional teacher training, which participating schools provided.
✗ Incorrect
- This actually suggests an alternative explanation for the improvements
- If teachers received additional training, the better scores might be due to better teaching rather than the collaborative method itself
- Introduces a confounding variable rather than controlling for one
Student attendance rates increased in classes using the collaborative learning method.
✗ Incorrect
- Increased attendance could be either a cause or effect of the collaborative method
- Better attendance might explain the test score improvements independent of the teaching method
- Does not isolate the collaborative approach as the causal factor