Plus/Minus Grading and Motivation: An Empirical Study of Student Choice and Performance

James McClure and Lee Spector

No 200401, Working Papers from Ball State University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper considers whether student motivation might be impacted by the replacement of a straight (A, B, C, D, F) grading system with a plus/minus system (A, A-, B+ . . . D-, F). The data that are examined are from several undergraduate economics classes at a mid-sized Midwestern university in the United States. The data includes student characteristics, student performance, and students' choices of either a plus/minus or a straight grading system. In this admittedly small scale study students, who chose plus/minus grading, were not significantly more motivated than students who opted for straight grading.

Keywords: Student Motivation; Plus/Minus grading; undergraduate education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 12 pages
Date: 2004-01, Revised 2005-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-mkt and nep-ure
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Published in Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 30 no. 6 (2005): 571-579.

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http://econfac.bsu.edu/research/workingpapers/bsuecwp200401mcclure.pdf First version, 2004 (application/pdf)

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