2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Calculus I students at our engineering school are at a wide range of preparedness levels. Many struggles with this course and the pandemic in the past two years only exacerbated the situation. In fall 2021, 33 out of 183 students (18%) in Calculus I at our engineering school received D/fail/withdraws. Students in this getaway course (first course in engineering and in college) need much more support than students in other courses. They feel anxious about their grades and lack confidence, and a sense of belonging in the classroom [1]. In cases where students were not prepared because they did not have access to academic support and educational resources before coming to college, their performance towards the beginning and throughout the semester will not be accurate and will affect their overall course grade. It is also important to remember that not all students learn the material at the same pace, and some will need a longer time to grasp the concepts. The traditional grading approach reinforces the inequities among students. Consequently, it becomes crucial to rethink how we teach these students and how we align our grading practices to their learning and well-being.

To encourage students to prioritize learning over grades, to reduce their anxiety, and to improve and grow throughout the semester, we implemented the mastery grading approach in our Calculus I classes, which impacted about 90-100 first-year engineering students who take Calculus I during their first semester. There is a wide variety of practices in alternative grading systems, such as “Mastery-based Testing (MBT)” [2], “Standards-Based Grading (SBG)” [3], or “Specifications Grading (Spec)” [4]. “Mastery grading” is used as an umbrella term for these alternative grading approaches.

This paper will discuss the main elements of the mastery grading design in a Calculus I class, as well as preliminary results on 1) how students’ performance differs between mastery and traditionally graded sections, 2) how mastery grading affects students’ stress, anxiety, mindset, and beliefs about their math ability. This study is ongoing, and data is being collected in the Fall of 2022. Students’ performance will be compared using their placement test scores and their common final exam. The pre-and post-surveys will be administered to assess students’ stress, anxiety, and beliefs about their math ability. The analysis will be done after the fall semester concludes.