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What's in a grade?Set your grading criteria and stick to them, say experienced instructors.
"Especially for psychologists, the deep-down realization of the unreliability of tests makes grading difficult," says Spatz. "We know that every score really represents a range." While no grading system is perfect, grades do serve an important purpose, notes John Ory, PhD, author of "Tips for Improving Testing and Grading" (Sage Publications, 1993.) Most importantly, grades provide feedback to students–telling them whether they are learning the course material, he says. They can also motivate students to study, notes Ory, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. How can grading be used to encourage student learning? Graduate students and grading experts offer their advice.
"Usually, when a student says ‘Oh, my grade was unfair,' what they really mean is they were not clear about the expectations, or the expectations that were put forth on paper were not what they were graded on," he says. For example, many graduate teaching assistants expect student papers to use good grammar and organization, but they assume this mastery of writing mechanics "goes without saying," leaving students surprised when points are deducted, Burnes observes.
Ranking papers–and students–relative to each other tends to take the focus off learning and instead puts it on how well others are doing in the class, notes Elizabeth Linnenbrink, PhD, an assistant professor at Duke University who studies assessment and motivation. Instead, set specific criteria for students to meet, she says. Keeping a detailed answer key can also help your grading consistency, notes Spatz. "I struggle to keep those partial credit answers consistent; I always make notes on my key about what sort of things I give partial credit for," he says.
To avoid this, many instructors steer clear of associating students' names with papers or assignments until after they have finished grading. Burnes asks students to put their name only on the title page of their papers, and he then flips that page over before beginning to grade. Another source of bias is the order in which an instructor reads essays or short answers to exam questions. An average essay that follows a brilliant one may receive lower marks than it deserves, notes Ory. When grading a stack of exams, Ory suggests graduate students grade all the answers to a particular essay question, then shuffle the stack before beginning the next question, randomizing the effects of any implicit comparisons.
That said, avoid excessively burdening yourself with stacks of papers, homework and tests to grade.
When appropriate–especially on open-ended answers–Linnenbrink suggests that instructors provide detailed comments along with letter or point grades. "Students find it very frustrating to get a paper back that just has a letter grade on it and nothing else," she says.
Also, consider providing different kinds of graded assignments, such as group projects, presentations and research papers, says Lawley. "Students should have the opportunity if they don't test well to show they learned the material in other ways, by doing other types of projects," he says.
Arash Sepehri, a fifth-year neuropsychology graduate student at Spalding University in Louisville, Ken., has hit on a way to protect confidentiality while learning his student's names: He hands back his student's tests individually in class. By Sadie F. Dingfelder Also in the Cover Package …
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© 2008 American Psychological Association |
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