Impacts of Standards-Based Grading on Students' Mindset and Test Anxiety
Published in Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2022
Abstract
Standards-based grading is an alternative grading method with many claimed benefits. This paper reports on quantitative studies investigating several of these oft-made anecdotal claims, such as reducing students’ test anxiety and fostering a growth mindset. We found that standards-based grading did reduce students’ test anxiety; moreover, the typically found difference in test anxiety between male and female students was eliminated in standards-based grading courses. We found no change in students’ growth mindset, but that students’ mastery avoidance goals were reduced.
Recommended citation: __D. Lewis__, Impacts of Standards-Based Grading on Students' Mindset and Test Anxiety. _Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning_ 22, no. 2 (2022), 67-77.