Spheres of Influence: Ventures and Visions in Educational Development*3-6 July, 2002 AbstractEducational improvement or Type 1 error?Bruce Mann, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada There is a general perception in higher education that the student grade average is higher than it was than in years past. Is this because educational development is gradually improving teaching and learning? Or maybe we are finding benefits that are not really there, "Type I error". This paper reviews the extant literature on "grade inflation" in on-campus lectures and labs, which has been debated widely and openly on university campuses and in the media for the past twenty-five years. We report on the conclusions of four causal comparative studies conducted for the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies at Memorial University (Mann, Schulz, & Seifert, 2002). As expected we found differential grade distributions between academic units at Memorial University with implications for educational development, namely. 1) that one potential source of high grades may come from "mastery learning", 2) a second from "group work", and 3) a third possible source from high values assigned to in-class and online "student participation". Key words: Objectives, outcomes and activities: Bruce Mann is a Professor of Education. His interests include: cognitive and metacognitive processing in hypermedia applications; computer networks in education; curricular integration: critical competitors in educational computing. Henry Schulz is an Associate Professor of Education. His interests include: classroom assessment practices; grading and reporting; test design; reliability and validity; quantitative methodology. Tim Seifert is an Associate Professor of Education. His interests include: learning strategies; strategy instruction; motivation. Contact: Bruce Mann, email: bmann@mun.ca |