TPC_Journal Digests_Volume_2_Issue_1

A b s t r a c t A six- year retrospective study of a university career course evaluated the effect of four different class schedule formats on students’ earned grades, expected grades, and evaluations of teaching. Some formats exhibited significant differences in earned and expected grades, but significant differences were not observed in student evaluations of teaching. A study of a standardized career course at a large southeastern university evaluated the effect of four different class schedule formats on students’ earned grades, expected grades, and evaluations of teaching. We hypothesized that course schedule formats (weekly meeting frequency and term length) makes a difference in student learning and evaluation of teaching. We examined 57 course sections meeting over a six-year period team-taught by lead instructors and coinstructors with an instructor/student ratio of about 1:8. During the time of this study, four class schedule formats were used. In the case of a 16-week semester, the class met once per week for 3 hours; twice per week for 1.5 hours; or three times weekly for 1 hour. A fourth schedule option was for a 6-week term with the class meeting four times weekly for about 8 hours per week. All sections of the course followed a prescribed curriculum comprising a mixture of lectures, panel presentations, small and large group instructional activities, personal research, and field work. Although grade point average has limitations as a measure of academic achievement, class grades are, nevertheless, a widely accepted method of quantifying students’ level of educational achievement. For this study, we assumed that students’ final earned grades (EG) would accurately reflect C lass M eeting S chedules in R elation to S tudents ’ G rades and E valuations of T eaching TPC Digest Robert C. Reardon Stephen J. Leierer Donghyuck Lee TPC Journal Volume 2 Issue 1