IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jfr/ijhe11/v11y2022i5p70.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changing Bimodal Grade Distributions – A Missed Opportunity?

Author

Listed:
  • Karamjeet K. Singh
  • Tara Allohverdi
  • Steffen Graether

Abstract

Bimodal grade distributions indicate a gap in learning, where the highest quartile of students is skilful in the subject matter, but the lowest quartile is not retaining course material that demonstrates a good level of understanding. Students in the lower quartile do not necessarily have the same challenges as remedial students (i.e., those that do not meet the minimum course requirement) and should therefore be directed differently. We suggest that it is important to consider which elements of the course can be modified to reduce or eliminate bimodality. We provide here an approach to detect bimodality, explore the causes, and provide potential solutions that could be applied to any course. Our case study is on a third-year biochemistry course where several semesters showed a bimodal grade distribution. While student composition and timing of the course may have contributed to this result, underlying causes that can be controlled by the instructor include the lack of student engagement and academic motivation. Increasing the opportunities to earn marks and receive feedback, adding online components using social media, implementing seminars, and training teaching assistants to lead seminars can help reduce this problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Karamjeet K. Singh & Tara Allohverdi & Steffen Graether, 2022. "Changing Bimodal Grade Distributions – A Missed Opportunity?," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(5), pages 1-70, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:jfr:ijhe11:v:11:y:2022:i:5:p:70
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/ijhe/article/download/21606/13940
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/ijhe/article/view/21606
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. P. M. Hartigan, 1985. "Computation of the Dip Statistic to Test for Unimodality," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 34(3), pages 320-325, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. James Mitchell & Aubrey Poon & Dan Zhu, 2022. "Constructing Density Forecasts from Quantile Regressions: Multimodality in Macro-Financial Dynamics," Working Papers 22-12R, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 11 Apr 2023.
    2. Suren Basov & Svetlana Danilkina & David Prentice, 2020. "When Does Variety Increase with Quality?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 56(3), pages 463-487, May.
    3. Mariani, Fabio & Pérez-Barahona, Agustín & Raffin, Natacha, 2010. "Life expectancy and the environment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 798-815, April.
    4. Deversi, Marvin & Ispano, Alessandro & Schwardmann, Peter, 2021. "Spin doctors: An experiment on vague disclosure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    5. Joerg Heining & Joerg Lingens, 2000. "Social Interaction in Regional Labour Markets," Regional and Urban Modeling 283600034, EcoMod.
    6. Graham Elliott & Nikolay Kudrin & Kaspar Wüthrich, 2022. "Detecting p‐Hacking," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(2), pages 887-906, March.
    7. Pfister, Roland & Wirth, Robert & Weller, Lisa & Foerster, Anna & Schwarz, Katharina, 2018. "Taking shortcuts: Cognitive conflict during motivated rule-breaking," MPRA Paper 95773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. John Ryter & Xinkai Fu & Karan Bhuwalka & Richard Roth & Elsa Olivetti, 2022. "Assessing recycling, displacement, and environmental impacts using an economics‐informed material system model," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(3), pages 1010-1024, June.
    9. Utz Weitzel & Michael Kirchler, 2022. "The Banker's Oath And Financial Advice," Working Papers 2022-13, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    10. Beth Fairfield & Ettore Ambrosini & Nicola Mammarella & Maria Montefinese, 2017. "Affective Norms for Italian Words in Older Adults: Age Differences in Ratings of Valence, Arousal and Dominance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, January.
    11. Picard, Nicolas, 2021. "The role of spatial competitive interactions between trees in shaping forest patterns," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 36-45.
    12. Donald R Cantrell & Jianhua Cang & John B Troy & Xiaorong Liu, 2010. "Non-Centered Spike-Triggered Covariance Analysis Reveals Neurotrophin-3 as a Developmental Regulator of Receptive Field Properties of ON-OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(10), pages 1-16, October.
    13. Christoph J. Borner & Ingo Hoffmann & Jonas Krettek & Lars M. Kurzinger & Tim Schmitz, 2021. "On the Return Distributions of a Basket of Cryptocurrencies and Subsequent Implications," Papers 2105.12334, arXiv.org.
    14. Diebolt, Claude & Mishra, Tapas & Perrin, Faustine, 2021. "Gender empowerment as an enforcer of individuals’ choice between education and fertility: Evidence from 19th century France," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 408-438.
    15. Weitzel, Utz & Kirchler, Michael, 2023. "The Banker’s oath and financial advice," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    16. Jamie L. Cross & Lennart Hoogerheide & Paul Labonne & Herman K. van Dijk, 2023. "Bayesian Mode Inference for Discrete Distributions in Economics and Finance," Working Papers No 11/2023, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.
    17. Cheng, Ming-Yen & Hall, Peter, 1998. "On mode testing and empirical approximations to distributions," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 245-254, August.
    18. Jose Ameijeiras-Alonso & Rosa M. Crujeiras & Alberto Rodríguez-Casal, 2019. "Mode testing, critical bandwidth and excess mass," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 28(3), pages 900-919, September.
    19. Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde & Federico Mandelman & Francesco Zanetti & Yang Yu, 2018. "Search Complementarities, Aggregate Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy," 2018 Meeting Papers 386, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    20. Fan, Jijian & Friedman, Daniel & Gair, Jonathan & Iyer, Sriya & Redlicki, Bartosz & Velu, Chander, 2021. "A simulation study of how religious fundamentalism takes root," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 465-481.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jfr:ijhe11:v:11:y:2022:i:5:p:70. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sciedu Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.