Pedagogical Practices

This section describes the reportedly common pedagogical practices of fostering competition among students, and grading on a curve. Contrary to published descriptions of college teaching in science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines, Virginia's CS and Biology/Life Sciences departments typically endorsed cooperation over competition. Furthermore, grading on a curve was common only in a minority of the studied departments.

The following list identifies the survey questions that gathered data on these pedagogical practices.

• Competition and Cooperation 
  • Faculty endorsement of competition and/or cooperation among students was measured by agreement with two statements: "Competition helped students do their best work." and "Students benefited from helping each other with assignments." Agreement was measured on a 5-point scale where 1 indicated strong disagreement and 5 indicated strong agreement.
  • Tables of CS and Biology/Life Sciences' departmental and discipline means for the competition and cooperation statements are listed below. 
• Grading on a Curve 
  • The survey asked faculty about their grading practices for the largest required, introductory or intermediate level undergraduate course they taught. The question was "Were final grades calculated on a curve (certain percentages of students earned A's, B's, C's, etc.), on an absolute scale of demonstrated mastery, or other [grading method]?"
  • Responses showed that grading on a curve was not usual in most departments. When this grading method was used, several faculty explained that they only curved grades upward, never downward.
  • Tables showing the percentage of responding CS and Biology/Life Sciences faculty who graded on a curve are presented below. 

Pedagogical Practices in CS Departments:

Endorsement of Cooperation and Competition as Pedagogical Tools
1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree
CS Departments	Cooperation	Competition
1.2	4.00	2.25
2.2	4.00	2.33
3.2	2.33	1.78
4.2	4.33	3.00
5.2	.	.
6.2	4.33	3.67
7.2	3.63	2.55
8.2	3.20	3.00
10.2	3.50	2.63
11.2	4.00	2.00
12.2	4.00	3.00
13.2	2.50	1.50
14.2	4.00	2.00
15.2	4.00	4.33
16.2	4.00	3.50
17.2	2.50	3.00
18.2	4.00	4.00
19.2	4.00	1.50
20.2	5.00	2.00
21.2	3.50	2.00
22.2	4.50	2.00
24.2	3.76	3.16
25.2	4.00	2.00
mean	3.78	2.60

Pedagogical Practices in Biology/Life Sciences Departments: