30 research outputs found
Graduate teaching assistants use different criteria when grading introductory physics vs. quantum mechanics problems
Physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are often responsible for grading.
Physics education research suggests that grading practices that place the
burden of proof for explicating the problem solving process on students can
help them develop problem solving skills and learn physics. However, TAs may
not have developed effective grading practices and may grade student solutions
in introductory and advanced courses differently. In the context of a TA
professional development course, we asked TAs to grade student solutions to
introductory physics and quantum mechanics problems and explain why their
grading approaches were different or similar in the two contexts. TAs expected
and rewarded reasoning more frequently in the QM context. Our findings suggest
that these differences may at least partly be due to the TAs not realizing that
grading can serve as a formative assessment tool and also not thinking about
the difficulty of an introductory physics problem from an introductory physics
student's perspective
Grading Practices and Considerations of Graduate Students at the Beginning of their Teaching Assignment
Research shows that expert-like approaches to problem-solving can be promoted
by encouraging students to explicate their thought processes and follow a
prescribed problem-solving strategy. Since grading communicates instructors'
expectations, teaching assistants' grading decisions play a crucial role in
forming students' approaches to problem-solving in physics. We investigated the
grading practices and considerations of 43 graduate teaching assistants (TAs).
The TAs were asked to grade a set of specially designed student solutions and
explain their grading decisions. We found that in a quiz context, a majority of
TAs noticed but did not grade on solution features which promote expert-like
approaches to problem-solving. In addition, TAs graded differently in quiz and
homework contexts, partly because of how they considered time limitations in a
quiz. Our findings can inform professional development programs for TAs