{"id":1208,"date":"2025-04-30T08:31:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T12:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/edvice\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2025-07-17T14:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T18:22:10","slug":"end-of-semester-reflection-as-a-tool-for-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/edvice\/2025\/04\/30\/end-of-semester-reflection-as-a-tool-for-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"End-of-Semester Reflection as a Tool for Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Jeff Rients and Stephanie Fiore<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The end of the semester is the perfect time to take stock of what worked in our classes this year and also explore thoughts we might have about any challenges we may have faced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

A fruitful area to reflect on is how we can use assessments and grading to grow student learning. Our guest speaker for the CAT\u2019s annual STEM Educators\u2019 Lecture on April 8 provided some ideas for thinking about this exact topic. Dr. Robert Talbert, professor of mathematics at Grand Valley State University and one of the authors of <\/span>Grading For Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices That Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education<\/span><\/i> helped faculty think deeply about the sometimes fraught relationship between grading and assessment.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Dr. Talbert\u2019s talk began with an overview of the history of grading in higher education, focusing on its relative newness to higher education and its role primarily as an administrative\/ bureaucratic tool, as opposed to a mechanism for improving student learning. In short, the grading scheme we are all familiar with\u2013certain student behaviors earn them grades which in term yield a final grade for purposes of calculating a grade point average\u2013developed during the 19th century movement of settlers into America\u2019s West as a way of allowing students to transfer credits from one school to another in a growing United States.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Assessment, on the other hand, focuses on observing student performance in comparison to some goal or standard and providing the student with the feedback needed to improve the performance. Dr. Talbert\u2019s work argues that we need to do less grading and more assessment in our classrooms. <\/span>Grading for Growth<\/span><\/i> outlines multiple strategies to achieve this goal, and Dr. Talbert walked us through his own specific approach that he uses with his mathematics students.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, a work like <\/span>Grading for Growth<\/span><\/i> and a lecture like Dr. Talbert\u2019s is never going to provide us with all the answers we need to improve our course so that more of our students succeed. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions in higher education, as the context of the individual course, the individual instructor, and the individual student will always be requisite pieces of the puzzle. As much as we at the CAT love the \u201calternate assessment\u201d framework Talbert uses, every instructor is ultimately responsible for making an assessment plan that fits their specific situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grading for Growth<\/span><\/i> strikes us as the kind of book that will do a lot of good in a lot of classrooms. But what matters more is that whatever assessment plan we use should be developed and deployed with thoughtful intentionality. This approach works equally well for every aspect of our teaching. If we want to be the best instructors we can be, then it\u2019s wise to stop and consider questions such as<\/span><\/p>\n