Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: FALCoN with the Pacific Grading Team (ACT summer program of NIST). Engaging students in their own learning with alternative assessment strategies. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
One of the biggest challenges facing today’s instructor is overcoming students’ prioritization of grades over learning and metacognition. Providing students with opportunities to establish personal agency and buy-in may be key to re-focusing students on the broader objectives of higher education. Here, we present primarily literature-reviewed pre-, during, and post-exam strategies to engage students in taking an active role in their undergraduate courses. One of the most intriguing strategies we encountered, albeit with no peer-reviewed publications summarizing its efficacy to-date, is a strategy referred to as the public exam: some exam material is pre-released to promote higher-order thinking and allow for student feedback on the clarity of the exam format and language. Based on survey responses, public exams were found to positively impact direction to core concepts, deepened thought, reduced anxiety, and performance with no negative equity recourse. Additional strategies include alternative techniques as formative assessments (e.g., concept maps, defining features matrix, empty outline), prioritizing inclusive classroom environment design, and peer- and self-assessment strategies (e.g., exam autopsy, exam wrapper, revise and resubmit). Overall, more study is needed in STEAM fields to better assess the impacts these strategies have on today’s young scientist, but the literature that is available within and outside the natural sciences suggests that spending more time as an instructor on inviting and training students to be more active and present in their own academic progress can positively impact overall classroom outcomes.
This summer, NIST hosted Addressing Challenges in Teaching (ACT), the third annual flexible, small group learning event in the Solve My Problem (SMP) series. The group "Pacific Grading Team" presenting Friday consists of Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Miriam Markum, Rachael Wade, Micah Donor, Mary Ellard-Ivey, and Heidi Richter.
Dr. Melanie Lenahan
