written by Andy Rundquist

Standards-based grading is gaining popularity at the high school level, including physics courses. The basic notion is to give your students a list of objectives upfront that they need to master. Students can reassess often and their final grade is determined solely by their last reassessment on each standard. It is the instructor's job to help students find ways of showing their mastery to you. I implemented this in a junior-level mechanics course where the small numbers allowed me to introduce a novel twist: all assessments had to include the student's voice. This meant that students turned in pencasts, screencasts, and in-person assessments. Several days were also set aside for collaborative oral assessments, where students offered up honest advice and scores were mutually determined. In this paper, I'll share my experience trying out this pedagogical experiment and try to convey how it has improved my own understanding of my students' understanding.

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Published February 6, 2012
Last Modified April 24, 2012