Abstract
While formative assessments (FAs) can facilitate learning within undergraduate STEM courses, their impact likely depends on many factors, including how instructors implement them, whether students buy-in to them, and how students utilize them. FAs have many different implementation characteristics, including what kinds of questions are asked, whether questions are asked before or after covering the material in class, how feedback is provided, how students are graded, and other logistical considerations. We conducted 38 semi-structured interviews with students from eight undergraduate biology courses to explore how various implementation characteristics of in-class and out-of-class FAs can influence student perceptions and behaviors. We also interviewed course instructors to provide context for understanding student experiences. Using thematic analysis, we outlined various FA implementation characteristics, characterized the range of FA utilization behaviors reported by students, and identified emergent themes regarding the impact of certain implementation characteristics on student buy-in and utilization. Furthermore, we found that implementation characteristics have combined effects on student engagement and that students will tolerate a degree of “acceptable discomfort” with implementation features that contradict their learning preferences. These results can aid instructor reflection and guide future research on the complex connections between activity implementation and student engagement within STEM disciplines.
Highlights
Formative assessment (FA) has been heralded as one of the most effective ways to improve student learning (Black & Wiliam, 1998), and the addition of in-class and out-of-class formative assessments (FAs) activities to undergraduate courses can improve student performance and reduce failure rates within STEM courses (Freeman et al, 2007, 2014)
Researchbased recommendations applicable to STEM courses have emerged for in-class FAs, such as Peer Instruction with clickers (Knight & Brame, 2018; Vickrey et al, 2015), cooperative group work (Oakley et al, 2004; Tanner et al, 2003; Wilson et al, 2018), and in-class active learning (Eddy, Brownell, et al, 2015a), but less attention has been paid to out-of-class FAs for undergraduate STEM courses (Letterman, 2013)
Students justified these types of behaviors with reasons including that they were short on time and had other assignments, that they knew the FA was low stakes, that they were not provided enough time, or that they knew the instructor would provide the answer
Summary
Formative assessment (FA) has been heralded as one of the most effective ways to improve student learning (Black & Wiliam, 1998), and the addition of in-class and out-of-class FA activities to undergraduate courses can improve student performance and reduce failure rates within STEM courses (Freeman et al, 2007, 2014). Many sources define FAs as tasks that occur during the learning process with the intended purpose of improving learning (assessment for learning) rather than assigning grades (assessment of learning; Angelo & Cross, 1993; Chappuis & Stiggins, 2002; Sadler, 1998) Despite their potential, there can be wide variation in how instructors implement FA activities and how students interact with them, which could explain the variation seen in resulting student learning in STEM courses (Andrews et al, 2011; Freeman et al, 2014; Turpen & Finkelstein, 2010). This has important consequences for instructors and researchers because it elevates the need to consider FAs as complex entities, with each activity consisting of an array of underlying characteristics
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