Heterogeneous Class Size Effects: New Evidence from a Panel of University Students

Bandiera, Oriana; Larcinese, Valentino; Rasul, Imran

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0297.2010.02364.x

Cited by 124 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…The treatment causes an increase in total grade points by about 0.30 standard deviations in this group, where these students both complete more courses and improve their grade average. To put the size of the main effect in context, we note that it is comparable to the effect of: a one standard deviation improvement in teacher quality (Rockoff, 2004); a one standard deviation in university class size (Bandiera et al, 2010); and substantial individual incentives for academic performance in college (Angrist et al, 2009), which all have been shown to improve academic performance by about 0.15 standard deviations.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exercise Improves Academic Performance

et al. 2017

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Abstract:We report the results of a randomized controlled trial testing whether incentivizing physical exercise improves the academic performance of college students. As expected, the intervention increases physical activity. The main result is that it generates a strong and significant improvement in academic performance, particularly for students who struggled at the baseline in terms of lifestyle habits. We also provide evidence on the underlying mechanisms: Students who were incentivized to exercise have a healthier life style and improved self-control. Overall, the study demonstrates that incentivizing students to exercise can be an important tool in improving educational achievements.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exercise Improves Academic Performance

et al. 2017

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“…Minimal cost to conduct the study. 3 Simple procedure that any instructor can use. 4 Permits use of a true experimental design using archival data.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Higher Education Exams Be Shortened? A Proposed Methodology

Lee¹,

Bygrave²,

Mahar³

et al. 2014

IJIET

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Abstract-Any lecturer would agree that marking exams is the bane of her existence. A time-consuming and tiring process, it often requires complex, subjective judgments. Higher education exams typically take 3.0 hours. Do they really need to last so long? Can we justifiably reduce the number of questions on them? Shortening an exam by one hour, if justified, should result in a one-third reduction in lecturer time and effort spent marking. Surprisingly little empirical research has addressed these problems. Classical methods may be partly to blame for this dearth of studies. We propose an alternative methodology based on three key components including two recent developments in experimental design and statistics --synthetic experimental designs and equivalence hypothesis testing. The third component consists in comparing, on six psychometric criteria, student performance in a class on the standard 3.0-hr final exam with that on shortened exams with proportionately fewer questions. Two are the frequently misunderstood standard psychometric criteria -reliability and validity. We argue that adding four common-sense criteria -justifiability of test use, number of exam questions, equivalence in mean student performance, and correspondence (between shortened and full-length exam scores) -confer significant additional benefits. Our approach provides a simple methodology that lecturers can, with minimal time and effort, use to examine the effect of shortening exams for their own classes.Index Terms-Exam length, psychometric criteria, synthetic experimental designs, test length. I. INTRODUCTIONMarking exams is the bane of any lecturer's existence. It is characteristically a tedious, time-consuming process. The intricate subjective judgments that are required can exhaust even the most dedicated of lecturers. Yet despite the almost universal loathing of lecturers for this activity, surprisingly little research has been published on ways to reduce the time and effort required to mark conventional written examinations. The purpose of the present study is to redress this long-standing neglect. In this paper, we are concerned with mixed-format exams used most commonly in academe and consisting of a mixture of different types of questions including problem solving (requiring detailed solutions), Manuscript received November 6, 2013; revised January 12, 2014 essay, short answer, and multiple choice questions.Written final examinations three hours or more in length are common in many universities and colleges around the world. Why then, if marking is so universally loathed, are exams so long (both in duration and number of questions posed)? Custom or tradition seems the primary reason [1]. Even more surprisingly, long exams have been retained despite dramatic increases in class sizes over the past couple of decades at most institutions of higher learning. Many lecturers complain of class sizes more than doubling in just the last 15-20 years [2]- [4]. In effect, marking time and effort for many lecturers has, at a minimum, effective...

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“…7 As argued by Bandiera, Larcinese and Rasul (2008) focusing on this kind of measure is particularly relevant for policy implications, since the official class size can be modified by universities, while interventions aimed at regulating the physical attendance of students may be much more complex.…”

Section: As Shown Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent study by Bandiera, Larcinese and Rasul (2008) investigates the effects produced by these opposing forces by analysing class size effects on college student performance. Using data from a leading UK university, they show a negative and significant effect of class size for the smallest and largest ranges of class size, while the effect for intermediate class sizes (from 33 to 104 students) is not significantly different from zero.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%