Cognitive-affective consequences of grading versus nongrading of formative evaluations

In testing the effect of grading versus nongrading of formative evaluations on cognitive learning and affective behaviors of graduate nursing students the following hypotheses were formulated: The experimental (E) group will learn and demonstrate affective behaviors significantly more than control I (CI) and II (CII) groups. Subjects were 95 graduate nursing students. E group subjects (N = 38) were taught by means of FE, with grades. CI (N = 32) and CII (N = 25) groups were taught by means of lecture-discussion and FE without grades, respectively. The content covered conditions of learning and instruction in nursing. Pre- and posttests provided data on cognitive learning. Affective measures and demographic data were obtained only at the posttest. The hypotheses were tested by means of t test. Fisher's Exact Probability Test and Pearson were done to test distribution and relationships between variables. Results showed that: The E group learned significantly more than the CI group, but the CII group learned significantly more than the E group; all groups learned significantly; there were no significant differences among groups in affective behaviors although CII subjects scored highest. Implications were made for education of patients, students, and staff.