The Effects of the Use of Grades as an Incentive

Cullen, Francis T.; Cullen, John B.; Hayhow, Van L.; Plouffe, John T.

doi:10.1080/00220671.1975.10884770

Cited by 12 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Rarely is there an inquiry as to the effects of grades on students and on their teachers. Cullen, Cullen, Hayhow, and Plouffe (1975) and Michael (1977) have, however, explored classroom reward and incentive systems in studies that may have grading implications. Similarly, Nitko (1989) discusses the motivational role of pupil evaluations and the attributes that must be present in those evaluations to stimulate student effort.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inside High School Grading Practices: Building a Research Agenda

Stiggins

Frisbie

Griswold

1989

Educational Measurement

113

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inside High School Grading Practices: Building a Research Agenda

Stiggins

Frisbie

Griswold

1989

Educational Measurement

113

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“…It is possible that the research setting influenced this behavior, as students did not have a strong incentive to engage deeply with the video content. Incentives such as course credit and grades have been shown to increase homework completion (Cullen et al, 1975) and student performance (Radhakrishnan et al, 2009), but those incentives were lacking in the current study. If the behaviors reported in this study are anywhere close to typical, however, it suggests that students might not always make full use of the features of video, such as the ability to pause and replay, which could facilitate their learning.…”

Section: Rq1: How Do Students Interact With An Online Instructional Video Presentation?mentioning

confidence: 83%

The Effect of Designing and Segmenting Instructional Video

2021

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Aim/Purpose: This study aims to explore whether instructors and educators should segment portions of instructional video that can be loaded and executed independently of other portions, and how long the segment portion of instructional video should be to effectively influence students’ learning, perception, and interaction. Background: Instructional videos are widely used in higher education for pedagogy purposes, and students expect their face-to-face and online courses to include video for effective instructional and learning outcomes. The literature indicates that researchers suggested that segmented video might assist learning and reduce cognitive burden; however, empirical research does not provide sufficient guidance about how to do it. Methodology: This mixed-methods study included quantitative data from an online experiment, followed by qualitative data from focus groups to help explain and expand on the quantitative findings. This study compared a 14-minute instructional video with the same content split into three segments, ranging from four to five minutes in length, to explore how segmenting affects students’ learning and how students perceive and interact with the video. The quantitative portion of the study used an experimental design with random assignment to control and experimental groups. Participants were randomly assigned by Qualtrics to one of two conditions where they watched either a single long (14-minute) video (the control group) or the same content split into three video segments (the experimental group). Participants in both groups were asked to watch the video(s), take a content knowledge quiz, and respond to an opinion questionnaire. The qualitative portion of the study consisted of focus groups where participants were asked to reflect on their overall perceptions of using online instructional video. Contribution: This study contributes to the literature knowledge on how students interact with instructional video and how, and if, longer instructional videos should be divided into shorter segments. Findings: Results from this study indicated that there is no significant difference between the Long Video Group (control group) and the Segmented Video Group (experimental group) on measures of learning, interaction with or perceptions of the video. However, participants who engaged in multitasking activities other than texting performed worse on the learning measure. The focus group participants described a variety of behaviors and preferences for watching the instructional video but expressed a preference for videos that were about 20 minutes long. Recommendations for Practitioners: For the purpose of building declarative knowledge, the number and length of instructional video segments may be less important than the other instructional materials and strategies instructors and educators provide to support students’ interaction with the instructional video. Recommendation for Researchers: The qualitative findings suggest that while preferred instructional video length may differ based on context, a 20-minute instructional video may be preferred, or at least accepted, in a typical academic setting, though this possibility needs further study. Impact on Society: Results from this study may help instructors and educators to create high quality instructional video content by acknowledging that decisions about instructional video length and segmenting require professional discretion rather than arbitrary rules regarding video length. Future Research: Future researchers and practitioners can further evaluate and enhance the importance and design of instructional videos for pedagogical purposes, and additional research is needed before instructors, educators, and the educational field can accept the thought that any video over five or six minutes is considered too long for students’ attention span.

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“…Our preliminary literature search on the Web of Science database including search terms such as “grading scheme,” “grades and college courses,” and “grade bumps” did not uncover much existing literature involving the impact of a specific numerical range on student understanding of course grades and overall grading schemes. There is, however, some existing literature in which researchers have investigated individual differences in the motivational nature of course incentives (Chulkov, 2006; Lei, 2013) and comparisons of grading schemes and incentive structures in which points are added to or taken away from students (Cullen et al, 1975; Docan, 2006). This suggests that the future research ideas listed in Table 2 are novel and could ultimately benefit both students and instructors by improving course attitudes, decreasing grade anxiety, and decreasing email burden…”

Section: Preliminary Recommendations Based On Math Cognition Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ ability to calculate their final course grade may not be as easy as you think: Insights from mathematical cognition.

Thompson

Fitzsimmons

Scheibe

2023

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology

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Is there an optimal grading scheme? Do psychology instructors prefer one grading scheme over another? These questions were recently posted on the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Facebook page. After reading the responses, we realized that research in the domain of math cognition might help to shed light on an optimal grading scheme and put some of the posters' comments into context. Posters often mentioned 100-point and 1,000-point grading schemes because of the ease with which students could convert course points to percentages. In this Pedagogical Points to Ponder article, we describe the quick development of whole number understanding in the 0-100 and 0-1,000 range relative to the slow development across the lifespan of rational number understanding. Although people struggle to understand fractions, percentages might serve as an intuitive bridge between familiar whole numbers and less familiar fractions. We encourage readers to ponder the fact that grading schemes are inherently relational and people of all ages, expertise levels, and cultural backgrounds fall prey to a common mathematical misconception in which they think about the components of rational numbers-the numerators and denominators-like independent whole numbers. This misconception, known as the whole number bias, may make any grading scheme challenging for students to comprehend. There are many open empirical questions about the optimal grading scheme that college instructors should adopt. Findings from the domain of math cognition can inform empirical research designs that may lead to improvements in students' comprehension of the course grading scheme and motivation, and may even diminish student requests for end-of-term grade bumps.

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The Effects of the Use of Grades as an Incentive

Cited by 12 publications

References 26 publications

Inside High School Grading Practices: Building a Research Agenda

Inside High School Grading Practices: Building a Research Agenda

The Effect of Designing and Segmenting Instructional Video

Students’ ability to calculate their final course grade may not be as easy as you think: Insights from mathematical cognition.

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