How do students perceive alternative approaches to grading? Do those perceptions change over time? This mixed methods study addressed these questions for three alternative grading approaches - democratic contract grading, specifications grading, and "ungrading" - in a community college context. While alternative grading models in higher…

Individual readiness assurance tests (iRATs) are frequently graded in team-based learning (TBL) classrooms, with the goal of incentivizing individual pre-class preparation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether shifting to an ungraded iRAT process affects student preparation and learning, as measured using assessment scores, and…

Enhancing student engagement and achievement in large undergraduate university courses is a vibrant area of research. Many existing studies have demonstrated the capacity of technologically enhanced formal and informal learning spaces to promote learning. However, this literature is dominated by studies that use assessment to incentivise student…

Pre-class preparation is a crucial component of team-based learning (TBL). Lack of preparation hinders both individual learning and team performance during TBL. The purpose of the present study was to explore how the grading of the individual readiness assurance test (iRAT) can affect pre-class preparation, iRAT performance and performance in the…

Healthcare educators are encouraged to provide both skill-based practical exams and interprofessional experiences to prepare students for clinical practice. With skill-based exams come increased student stress and anxiety. This article reports on the development, exploratory outcomes, and lessons learned from an ungraded objective structured…

A teacher should be able to measure what she expects her students to learn. Not only this, but it is the duty of the teacher to help the students to learn. All this involves much more than just providing knowledge in the specific discipline. In higher education, it is believed that a teacher is the friend, philosopher and guide of a student. A…

London dispersion forces (LDFs) are the most fundamental of the noncovalent interactions in that they are interactions that act between all molecular species and require only that students can use the "electron cloud" model of atomic structure. In this longitudinal study we investigate how students respond to prompts, designed to elicit…

In this study, I examined the impact of periodic pop quizzes on cumulative final exam scores. Specifically, I compared the impact of using no quizzes, graded quizzes, and ungraded quizzes on final exam scores of introductory psychology students. Quizzed students also completed a survey with questions probing how the students felt about the…

The relationship between assessment and learning in higher education often comes down to a single thing: a grade. Despite widespread criticism of grades as inexact tools, whose overemphasis undermines student learning and negatively affects student well-being, they continue to be the norm in the assessment of student learning. This paper analyses…

We report on several specific student difficulties regarding the second law of thermodynamics in the context of heat engines within upper-division undergraduate thermal physics courses. Data come from ungraded written surveys, graded homework assignments, and videotaped classroom observations of tutorial activities. Written data show that students…

The study assessed teaching performance of 222 student-teachers from the Faculty of Education, Ekiti State University, posted to various secondary schools in Ekiti State for a six-week teaching practice during 2010/2011 academic session. The sample included 119 males, 103 females, 78 (300-Level) and 144 (400-Level) students. Data were collected…