You can always find at least two types of students in every class: the talker and the listener. Because of this big difference, there can be a divide between classmates. Unfortunately, this becomes ...

In their course syllabi, many psychology professors grade students on one other thing besides their performance on quizzes, examinations, papers, and similar assessment instruments—that thing is class ...

As a student and educator, I have had a love-hate relationship with participation grades. On the one hand, I am naturally talkative and curious, so I often ask many questions and think out loud. On ...

When I began teaching, I adopted the common practice of grading student participation. I set aside 10 percent of my students’ grades for that purpose, and did my best to keep track of how much they ...

Despite being such a large school, Virginia Tech was able to reach a 13:1 student-to-professor ratio. With those numbers, students should take advantage of great mentoring from professors and ...

I read with interest Anna Broadbent’s essay on the benefits and pitfalls of class participation grades. From my perch as a provost, former dean and former department chair, I find that the grade for ...

I first began writing for The Chronicle in the fall of 1999, in a series describing my search for a tenure-track job. Back then, readers sent me actual, physical letters, although it wasn’t long ...