User:Phil the Philomath/Contract grading
Introduction:
Contract grading is a form of grading which results from cooperation between an instructor and their student(s), and entails a contracted number of assignments of specified quality that correspond to specific letter grades. These contracts often contain the following two characteristics, there are no finite amount of A’s given in the class. Any student who completes the work that corresponds to an A will receive an A. The second characteristic is instructors and students know exactly what is expected from them to receive a certain letter grade. Contract grading may be contrasted with other grading methods, such as grading on a curve or percentile systems. These curve and percentile systems include the Common Curve, Missouri Curve, and The Gaussian Curve. Grading on these curves creates an expectation that the number of A’s and B’s should correspond to the number of D’s and F’s leading to majority of students receiving C’s. (Source The Bell Curve Has an Ominous Ring Gary R Taylor)
Mark Buckland add on:
4/12 Draft
-Student reaction.
- A study conducted during the 1974-75 school year by James J. Polczynski on 280 students at a Midwest state university found that contract grading raised students instrumentality levels. The study also found that students opinion of their grade and the importance they place on their grade did not change. The largest change that the study found was that students felt a stronger assurance that a particular performance would match the grade they received better under the grading contract system then a traditional grading method. Moreover students also reported that they felt they had more control over their grade in the course which in turn increased their level of motivation to participate in the course.
-Advantages or to go into our case study section
- It is important to note that according to a study done in 2001 by William Yarber of Purdue University found that the knowledge attainted from courses using grading contract systems is equal to the knowledge attainted from traditional grading systems. Additionally the study found that the attitudes of students toward learning where the same in courses that used the grading contract system and the traditional grading method.
Implementation edit
- First a teacher presents the grading contract to this class then the class if often given time to read over the contract. Next, if the teacher choses to do so, the teacher will negotiate the terms of the contract. This means that the number of missed or late assignments to achieve a certain grade will be negotiated. There may or may not be a grace period to allow changes in the contract. Ultimately, all final decisions are left to the teacher. At the end of the contract students will earn the grade that matches the terms of the contract.
Mark, while I like this section, it should be linked to sources. You could look at Asao Inoue's books. Cathygaborusf (talk) 06:54, 13 April 2021 (UTC)
Adding Origin Section (Section I am responsible for in the group) I am going to get right into these sentences and make small grammar corrections Cathygaborusf (talk) 06:47, 13 April 2021 (UTC)
- While the origin of grading contracts is unclear, It (use lower case i) began to gain traction in the early 1970's as University's (universities) conducted research on alternative grading systems for classrooms. Both the University of Ohio and University (Ohio University or the Ohio State University?) of Florida conducted some of the earliest recorded published research on this topic. These early inquiries into contract grading were developed to find out whether or not contract grading increased performance and to evaluate the students thoughts and perception of the new grading system.
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