The COVID-19 outbreak has altered chemistry laboratory instruction and forced us to reconsider the balance between face-to-face and online teaching. Our students preferred face-to-face teaching (score 4.1/5 on a Likert-like scale) to virtual laboratory exercises (3.4/5) despite the fact that their performance score was actually lower in…

Loss aversion has been shown to influence decision making in a host of social and economic contexts. This paper presents a novel assessment strategy that seeks to address issues of student engagement and academic integrity through the combination of the concepts of loss aversion and peer-assessment. Students faced the possibility of losing a small…

This paper examines an alternative approach to grading at a public university in Singapore. Beginning in 2014, all incoming students were given a 'grade-free' period of assessment. This was designed to give new students time to adjust to university life and to inspire students to approach their learning free from the worry of grades. Similar to…

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is not a new concept. Still, the press, the worry, and the hype around the potential benefits and limitations of the explosion of these tools in this field is a current topic in teacher education. In this article, the authors summarize the past use of AI, present easily adaptable tools in teacher education,…

This study investigated changes in students' achievement goals as a result of their participation in academic summer programs for advanced learners. Researchers examined whether the type of classes, assigning grades, student gender, classroom autonomy support, and instructor's implicit theories of intelligence (mindset) moderated student change…

Feedback is powerful but variable. This study investigates which forms of feedback are more predictive of improvement to students' essays, using "Turnitin Feedback Studio"--a computer augmented system to capture teacher and computer-generated feedback comments. The study used a sample of 3,204 high school and university students who…

Educational assessment is an ever-present component of any formal learning environment that has critical consequences for students. Despite this relevance, there is a gap in knowledge regarding one of its foundations--namely, assessment "fairness." In particular, social class-based fairness of classroom assessment practices has been…

The following study explores the landscape of grading systems utilised in higher education, focusing on the frequency of different types of assessment scales (including Straight Letter, Plus/Minus, and other alternative policies). Although numerous studies have explored the relationship between university grading system and student behaviour,…

This paper studies which grading systems students choose for their degree projects when they are given the choice. Furthermore, the motivational factors behind making this choice are investigated. Student record data and a survey of students conducting their degree projects are used to study whether students prefer the Pass/Fail or A-F grading…

In the field of education, the international trend is to turn to criterion-referenced grading in the hope of achieving accountable and consistent grades. Despite a national criterion-referenced grading system emphasising knowledge as the only base for grading, Swedish physical education (PE) grades have been shown to value non-knowledge factors,…

This executive position paper (EPP) studies the influence of one Maryland public school system's implementation of a revised grading, promotion, and retention policy and the accompanying professional development to decrease the number of students proposed for retention in the same elementary grade following decades of a policy lacking procedures…

This timely resource provides a framework for teaching students how to think qualitatively and become more critical and reflexive researchers. Presented are a wealth of pedagogical tools that instructors across the disciplines can tailor to their own needs, including thought-provoking discussion questions, group work exercises, and field…

Through the reinforcement of shared assessment biographies, the provision of performance grades has been socially constructed as an operating imperative within the assessment practices of universities. The drive towards enhanced accountability through the production of quantifiable outcomes has also played a naturalising role in this practice. In…

In this article we explore factors that constitute "the social" for the teacher Susan, which at the same time highlights ethical aspects of the exercise of her profession. We meet her in a situation where she is setting grades, and our interest focuses on the relations that become of concern for her in her professional task to give the…

Several papers have proposed that the grading system affects students' incentives to exert effort. In particular, the previous literature has compared student effort under relative and absolute grading systems, but the results are mixed and the implications of the models have not been empirically tested. In this paper, I build a model where…