Hi Like Paul when students score too poorly on a test, I will scale scores like this: newscore = .xx*(100-oldscore), where .xx is some proportion to give the overall increment I've decided is appropriate. My reasoning is overly challenging test will hurt poorer students more and, by definition, students who did well were not markedly affected by the level of the test.
Take care Jim Jim Clark Professor & Chair of Psychology 204-786-9757 4L41A From: Paul C Bernhardt [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, November 22, 2013 12:36 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] PLOS ONE: Daily Online Testing in Large Classes: Boosting College Performance while Reducing Achievement Gaps There are a lot of interesting statements in this paper. I love this one: "The purpose of the curve was to reduce the number of students who failed the first exams - a standard practice in American universities." Standard practice? Common practice, certainly, but far from standard. And, methods of curving are even more varied (I have used in the past a proportional curving system that gave more points to students who scored very very poorly, and fewer to this who scored comparatively well). Paul On Nov 22, 2013, at 11:17 AM, Gerald Peterson wrote: I am a fan of more frequent testing, but what do folks think about the authors' contortions and post hoc fishing to find that their daily quiz class was comparatively better? If regular testing and retesting is effective, it ought to be easier to show greater comprehension and mastery of the material at the end of the term. If the daily quizzes are short with MC type questions, could students later show their learning on a full exam, with short answer and fill-in questions? I think varied daily testing and retesting would better promote transfer. G.L. (Gary) Peterson,Ph.D Psychology@SVSU On Nov 21, 2013, at 9:12 PM, Christopher Green <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: As though you didn't have enough people telling you how to teach already. Still, interesting finding. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0079774?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+plosone%2FPLoSONE+%28PLOS+ONE+Alerts%3A+New+Articles%29 Chris ....... Christopher D Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M6C 1G4 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://www.yorku.ca/christo --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd94b&n=T&l=tips&o=30349 or send a blank email to leave-30349-13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-30349-13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=30378 or send a blank email to leave-30378-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-30378-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=30427 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-30427-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-30427-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=30469 or send a blank email to leave-30469-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
