Dimensions of Variation in Chemistry Instructors’ Approaches to the Evaluation and Grading of Student Responses

Herridge, Michelle; Talanquer, Vicente

doi:10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00944

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(78 reference statements)

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“…It may also provide insight into teachers' cognition regarding how they intend to frame various class activities (Russ and Luna, 2013) and how they assess student learning during class time (Dini et al, 2019). To identify what teachers pay attention to, researchers have used a variety of methods, including (a) having instructors record (write) elements of instruction that they notice while watching or after watching video clips of instruction (Morris, 2006;Star and Strickland, 2008;Jacobs et al, 2010;Ko ¨nig et al, 2014;Blo ¨meke et al, 2022), (b) having instructors reason out loud as they evaluate and grade student responses to exam questions (Talanquer et al, 2015;Herridge and Talanquer, 2021;Herridge and Tashiro, 2021), and (c) having instructors record instances of student reasoning during their instruction, and reflect on those clips afterward (Russ and Luna, 2013;Sherin and Dyer, 2017;Luna et al, 2018).…”

Section: Teacher Noticingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemistry graduate teaching assistants’ teacher noticing

Geragosian,

Zhu,

Skriloff

et al. 2024

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

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Chemistry graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) have substantial facetime with undergraduate students at large research institutions where they lead discussion and lab sessions. Emerging research describes GTAs’ content and teaching knowledge for introductory chemistry classes, but we need to know more about how GTAs manage their classes in the moment and how they assess student learning during class time. We conducted classroom observations and post-observation interviews with six chemistry GTAs with various years of teaching experience and who were teaching a variety of classes (e.g., general chemistry discussion, biochemistry discussion, organic chemistry lab, computational chemistry lab, and more). These GTAs were each observed and interviewed multiple times over the course of a semester. Through qualitative analysis guided by the teacher noticing framework, we describe what chemistry GTAs notice, or pay attention to, regarding student learning in their teaching sessions and how they interpret what they notice. We found that chemistry GTAs often paid attention to the types of questions that students asked but relied on their students to take initiative to ask questions in order to assess their learning. Also, GTAs often focused on superficial features of their class sessions to assess learning, like whether students finished their tasks and left their session early. However, some GTAs noticed more sophisticated evidence of student understanding, such as when students connected content covered across multiple class sessions. The results from this study contribute to our understanding of how chemistry GTAs lead their sessions and evaluate student learning during their sessions. Results serve to inform potential training designs that can support chemistry GTAs’ teacher learning through learning to notice—and to create opportunities to notice—significant features of their classrooms.

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Section: Teacher Noticingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemistry graduate teaching assistants’ teacher noticing

Geragosian,

Zhu,

Skriloff

et al. 2024

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In agreement with this, a recent study examined multiple instructors' grading of identical chemistry assignments, using a rubric. There was substantial variation in the nature of feedback and how credit was awarded (Herridge and Talanquer, 2020). Relatedly, the use of grades as a research measure has been questioned (Brown et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Course letter grades and rates of D, W, F grades can introduce variability to course comparisons

James

2023

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

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Students’ Perceptions of Specifications Grading: Development and Evaluation of the Perceptions of Grading Schemes (PGS) Instrument

Yik,

Machost,

Streifer

et al. 2024

J. Chem. Educ.

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Instructional reforms of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses in higher education have primarily focused on instructors’ teaching practices. While this area has been well explored, other areas of instructional reform lag. One such broad area is assessment and evaluation, which includes grading schemes. In recent years, alternative grading schemes and movements have increased in popularity. Within chemistry, specifications grading is favored. Specifications grading has been proposed as an alternative grading scheme to address the reported flaws of the traditional, 100-point or A–F grading system. Advocates for specifications grading expect increases in students’ motivation to learn, grading transparency, and reductions in stress. However, empirical investigations testing these hypothesized outcomes are rare. To empirically test the hypothesized outcomes of specifications grading, we developed the Perceptions of Grading Schemes (PGS) instrument, which explores students’ perceptions of the implementation of specifications grading as compared to a traditional grading scheme experienced in other STEM courses. We analyze the psychometric properties of the PGS instrument data from students enrolled in a specifications-graded, year-long general chemistry laboratory course. Analyses demonstrate good data-model fit through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and high reliability of the instrument subscales, indicating that the instrument functions well with students in specifications-graded courses. Data suggest that implementations of specifications grading may not be achieving all of the hypothesized student outcomes.

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Dimensions of Variation in Chemistry Instructors’ Approaches to the Evaluation and Grading of Student Responses

Cited by 7 publications

References 35 publications

Chemistry graduate teaching assistants’ teacher noticing

Chemistry graduate teaching assistants’ teacher noticing

Course letter grades and rates of D, W, F grades can introduce variability to course comparisons

Students’ Perceptions of Specifications Grading: Development and Evaluation of the Perceptions of Grading Schemes (PGS) Instrument

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