Grading Class Participation

This Q&A was adapted with permission from the book Chalk Talk: E-advice from Jonas Chalk, Legendary College Teacher, edited by Donna M. Qualters and Miriam Rosalyn Diamond –

Question

Dear Jonas,

I feel an important part of learning in my class is for students to be active. I expect them to be prepared (through reading and homework) to answer questions, ask me for clarification, as well as tackle work individually and in pairs. So I included on my syllabus that participation counts as 15% of their final grade. Now I’m not quite sure how to evaluate that. One of my colleagues tells me that she never grades participation, as that would come down to grading personalities; outgoing students would get more points than quiet students. Someone else told me that he no longer grades participation because it led students to talk about nonsense just to say something. Yet another makes participation nearly half of the final grade, because he feels that the work students do in class is as important as what they do outside. Should I grade participation at all? If so, how?

Signed: Pensive on Participation

Answer

Dear Pensive on Participation,

As you point out, active involvement by students can greatly enhance the learning environment in the classroom. Active learning increases what is remembered and gives students more opportunities to think about the applications of what they have learned in new situations. By asking students to explain their thoughts to you and to their peers, they learn more by having to articulate their understanding and often offer new insights to other students in the process.

By making participation part of the grade, you can emphasize the importance of active learning, but grading class participation is one of the most difficult aspects of student evaluation. It is common for professors to determine participation grades according to subjective impressions, so that this component is used largely as a “fudge factor” in determining the final course grade. This sort of grading can be useless or even detrimental when the students have no guidance from the instructor on how to improve the quality of their participation. Such a grade often depends on the student’s personality with more introverted students at a disadvantage.

If you decide to grade on participation (and since you’ve already put it on the syllabus, you have little choice now) you may want to begin with a brief brainstorming exercise to determine what students feel are the qualities of meaningful class discussion that adds to their learning. This sets the stage for the introduction of your participation guidelines. The process of grading participation can be made more constructive and objective by the use of scoring rubrics.

Here is one example (from “Grading Class Participation”, Prof. Martha L. Mazneveski, Newsletter of the Teaching Resource Center for Faculty and Teaching Assistants, University of Virginia, Spring 1996):

0: Absent
1: Tries to respond when called, but does not offer much. Demonstrates very infrequent involvement in discussion
2: Demonstrates adequate preparation. Offers straightforward information without elaboration. Demonstrates sporadic involvement in discussion
3: Demonstrates good preparation. Offers interpretation and analysis. Responds to other students constructively. Demonstrates consistent ongoing involvement
4: Demonstrates excellent preparation. Offers analysis and synthesis. Puts together pieces of the discussion to develop new approaches.

It is important to explain your rubric to your students at the start of the semester, and to offer constructive feedback on how to improve their participation as the semester progresses. Midterm feedback can be done with memos or conferences which give the students their interim participation grades and which take the opportunity to reiterate the four-point scoring method.

There are several techniques to make sure that less outgoing students participate. You can use the technique of “cold calling”, where you ask a question then call on a particular student to respond. In math, science, and engineering courses, students can be asked to explain in class the solutions to assigned problems. It is also possible to broaden the definition of classroom participation to include on-line discussions and postings. This is a more comfortable form of expression for some more taciturn students, and it also has the advantage of leaving a record for you to evaluate.

The record-keeping required for the participation grade can present a significant challenge. If you have a small enough class, you can assign a number from the four-point scale to each student after each class meeting. For larger classes, there will not be the opportunity for each student to participate in each class meeting, and you will have to accumulate statistics over the semester. Some professors like to use a set of 3×5 cards (one per student) to select the students for “cold calls” and then to record the participation score.

For large lecture classes, these grading techniques quickly become unwieldy. In these cases, it is practical to use more formal assessment mechanisms like end-of-class quizzes or short essays on the material discussed in class. These can test the students‚ preparations, and if carefully constructed, they can help to teach the students to analyze and synthesize the lecture material.

Grading student class participation can be a meaningful way to promote critical thinking and assess student learning as long as the grading guidelines are clear from the beginning and the students receive feedback on their participation so they can improve.

Good Luck,

Jonas

Quick Tip

Experiment with online participation. Set up a discussion board on Canvas, and require each student to initiate at least one discussion thread per semester as part of their participation grade.

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This content was adapted with permission from the book Chalk Talk: E-advice from Jonas Chalk, Legendary College Teacher, edited by Donna M. Qualters and Miriam Rosalyn Diamond.

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