Towards a Grading Model That Supports Learning in Biology Courses

Advanced biology courses, particularly terminology-heavy organismal biology courses, pose unique challenges, which were further compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic. While attending to instructional strategies is one evident way to address these challenges, grading schemes can also be modified or completely restructured to accomplish this goal. What if the grading expectations could be aligned to how students learn in a way that supports their agency and empowers them? What if our grading schemes facilitate learning in students and provide opportunities for students to further study the material, even after they performed poorly in those areas? This paper unpacks the perspectives, course procedures, and thinking in two advanced biology courses that led the instructor to move away from traditional grading procedures and to adopt a more open grading schematic that facilitated student change and learning. The resulting grading model aligns with applied cognitive theories on knowledge acquisition and would be of interest to instructors interested in focusing on student learning progression and student improvement and retention in biology and other STEM subjects.