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Ease of grading and enrollments in secondary school science I. A model and its possible tests
Author(s) -
Bridgham Robert
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/tea.3660090404
Subject(s) - grading (engineering) , mathematics education , vocational education , psychology , science education , physical science , pedagogy , engineering , civil engineering
Low enrollments in the physical sciences have been a professional concern for some time, primarily because of their adverse effect on the general education of high school students, but also because of their effect on the teaching of the physical sciences and their possible impact on vocational choice, notably that of potential teachers. A model that relates ease of grading in the sciences to science enrollments is presented. Its central assumption is that an appropriate measure of ease of grading in a science course is the discrepancy between students' grade values in the science course and their grade values in other academic subjects, averaged across students in the course. Consideration of possible tests of the model leads to the conclusion that the most sensible initial test will be provided by a correlational study of the effects of ease of grading, following the secondary career of students in a single graduating class from a number of high schools by using data in existing school records.