Use of Contract Grading to Improve Grades Among College Freshmen in Introductory Psychology

Dana F. Lindemann and Colin R. Harbke

SAGE Open, 2011, vol. 1, issue 3, 2158244011434103

Abstract: The use of behavioral techniques in college teaching has declined during the past three decades. The purpose of this study was to compare a behaviorally based grading approach with a traditional point-based system. A total of 40 college freshmen were randomly assigned to a Traditionally Graded or Contract Graded Introductory Psychology course. Contract graded students were one third as likely to fail or withdraw, 3 times more likely to earn an A grade, and were more likely to perceive a high degree of control over their grade. These findings support use of a contract grading system in the contemporary college classroom.

Keywords: applied psychology; behaviorism; educational psychology; educational research; higher education; psychology; contract grading (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244011434103 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:1:y:2011:i:3:p:2158244011434103

DOI: 10.1177/2158244011434103

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SAGE Open
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().