Impacts of Standards-Based Grading on Students' Mindset and Test Anxiety

Published in Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2022

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.

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.

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