Carolyn A. Blondin

Balancing Participation Across Students in Large College Classes via Randomized Participation Credit

The study examines the effects of randomized credit on the percentage of students participating at four predefined levels. Students recorded their comments on specially designed record cards, and days were randomly selected for participation credit. This arrangement balanced participation across students while cutting instructor time for recording participation in half.

Enhancing On-Task Behavior in Fourth-Grade Students Using a Modified Color Wheel System

The authors used a withdrawal design to evaluate the effects of a modified Color Wheel System (M-CWS) on the on-task behavior of 7 students enrolled in the 4th grade. Standard CWS procedures were modified to include a 4th set of rules designed to set behavioral expectation for cooperative learning activities. Mean data showed that immediately after the M-CWS was applied, on-task behavior increased. In subsequent phases, on-task behavior immediately decreased when the M-CWS was withdrawn and immediately increased when it was reapplied, with no overlapping data across adjacent phases. For each participant, effects sizes calculated across the 3 adjacent phases revealed large effects for 20/21 comparisons. In addition to providing evidence of internal validity, these results demonstrate how educators can adapt the system.

Individual and Group Credit for Class Participation.

This research study focused on the use of cooperative groups to facilitate class-wide participation, especially for initially low participants. Undergraduates from three sections of a relatively large educational psychology course recorded their class participation in all course units. Four of the five units in each section offered either individual credit or group-plus-individual credit for participation. At the end of the first unit, instructors assigned students to five- or six-member cooperative groups based on their participation levels during the first unit. At the end of each remaining unit, instructors asked one student to randomly select 2 of 4 discussion days from that unit for individual participation credit. Additionally, in 2 of the 4 credit units, the instructor also made group bonus credit available if every present member of a group participated at least once on each selected credit day. The individual-plus-group credit contingency produced greater class-wide participation than individual credit alone for the total sample across the combined sections and for initially low participants in two of the three sections.