TPC-Journal-V2-Issue1

82 The Professional Counselor \Volume 2, Issue 1 We examined 57 course sections that met over a six-year period and were team-taught by lead instructors and co- instructors with an instructor/student ratio of about 1:8. Lead instructors included both professional staff and faculty who supervised the co-instructors. 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. In the 16-week semester, the class met once per week for 3 hours on Wednesdays (W); twice per week for 1.5 hours on either Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday (MW/TuTh); or three times weekly for 1 hour on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (MWF). A fourth schedule option was for a 6-week term where the class met four times weekly for about 8 hours per week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (MTuWTh). In summary, we sought to evaluate the influence of these four class schedule formats upon the educational experience of the students as measured by expected grades, earned grades, and student evaluations of teaching. Course Measures The following section gives details about the three measures of student learning and perceptions of teaching used in this study. Earned Grade (EG) Although a student’s 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 and future success in graduate school or employment (Plant, Ericsson, Hill, & Asberg, 2005). Specific to career development, Reardon, Leierer, and Lee (2007) showed that grades might be useful measures of career course interventions, “especially if the treatment variables are carefully described and the grading procedures are fully explained and replicable by other researchers” (p. 495). For this study, we assumed that a student’s final EG would accurately reflect learning in the course. Expected Grade (XG) Grade expectations are a complex phenomenon that combines realistic data-driven grade expectations with unjustified optimism or wishful thinking (Svanum & Bigatti, 2006). The XG reflects the student’s assessment of course demands and optimism about successfully meeting those demands. This grade prediction may be informed or uninformed; however, after completing multiple assignments over the course of the semester, Svanum and Bigatti (2006) noted that students lower the value of their XG such that it will be only moderately inflated and will reliably predict their final EG. Because students in our course had the course grading scale in the syllabus, a signed performance contract, and predicted their grades during the last week of the semester when 85% of their grade had already been accounted for, we hypothesized that in aggregate their predictions would be only moderately inflated and thus a reliable predictor of their earned grades and success in the course. We felt this grade variable was important as a measure of students’ confidence in their mastery of the career development subject matter and the problem-solving skills taught in the course, and therefore a valid measure of the relative effectiveness of different class schedule formats. In addition, comparing EG and XG informs us about students’ self-evaluation of learning and their actual performance in the course. When there is not a significant difference between the two scores, we might suppose that students have a fairly accurate understanding of their performance on completed assignments and those still to be graded. By contrast, a significant difference between XG and EG indicates a discrepancy between students’ self-evaluations of graded and as-yet-ungraded assignments and the official final grades. If XG is significantly higher than EG in a section, one may conclude that the academic work has been undervalued by the instructor or overvalued by the students. Conversely, if XG is significantly lower than EG, one might conclude that students’ estimates were conservative or instructors recognized a level of performance not seen by the students. Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) Student evaluation of classes and teaching effectiveness is standard practice at most postsecondary institutions. There is substantial anecdotal and experimental evidence supporting the usefulness of SETs (Centra, 1993; Marsh & Dunkin, 1992; Marsh & Roche, 1997). Certain student ratings forms provide important feedback that can be used to improve teaching performance (Greenwald & Gillmore, 1997; Marsh & Roche, 1997; McKeachie, 1997), and when asked most faculty members support the use of SETs as a tool for teaching improvement (Baxter, 1991; Griffin, 1999; Schmelkin, Spencer, &