Hi all, In my Introduction to Psychology course, during the Fall and Spring semesters, I have a “successful completion rate” (i.e., the percentage of students enrolled on the first day of class who earn a C or better for their final grade) of about 55% over the last three years. When I used to teach in the summers, my successful completion rate was around 85-90%; and I also get about 85-90% successful completion in honors’ sections of the course.
A couple of colleagues who teach about the same number of sections as I do have successful completion rates of about 75% and 85%. It’s possible that they are much better at teaching than I am. On the other hand, it’s also possible that the rigor of our courses differ. For example, the total number of points earned on my tests correlate about 0.62 with scores on a psychology reading-comprehension test that I developed. Reading is extremely important in my class. Why am I telling you this? First,the “successful completion rate” metric is becoming imortant for evaluating teachers and programs (take a look around the U.S. Dep of Education Website, e.g., here: http://www.ed.gov/accreditation?src=rn ). And the tone of some publications and announcements for teaching workshops/programs either imply or state outright that faculty are the primary cause of low successful completion rates. Second, I was hoping that you would share with me (probably privately, off-list) your experiences with this metric and also what your successful completion rates for intro psych are. I’m very curious about variations across different types of institutions. Best, Jeff -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Social/Behavioral Sciences Scottsdale Community College 9000 E. Chaparral Road Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626 Office: SB-123 Fax: (480) 423-6298 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJeffryRicker/timeline/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jeffry-ricker/3b/511/438 --- 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=48071 or send a blank email to leave-48071-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
