Formative Assessment and its Influence on Classroom Community in Biocalculus

Abstract

Most of the attrition from STEM majors occurs between the first two semesters of calculus, and prospective life science majors are one of the groups with the highest attrition rate. One of the largest factors for students that persist in STEM major beyond the first semester of calculus was a sense of community and a perceived connection with their instructor. Since building a sense of community is one of the stated purposes of formative assessment, we investigated how instructor and student perceptions of the purpose of formative assessment contributed to the formation of classroom community in a calculus for life science course. This qualitative ethnographic case study examined two cases of formative assessment used in difference sections. Although formative assessments have been found to increase a sense of classroom community, students and instructors reported that this was only the case when both the student’s and instructors’ beliefs about the purposes of formative assessments agreed.