Grading Practices and Considerations of Graduate Students at the Beginning of their Teaching Assignment

Research shows that expert-like approaches to problem-solving can be promoted by encouraging students to explicate their thought processes and follow a prescribed problem-solving strategy. Since grading communicates instructors' expectations, teaching assistants' grading decisions play a crucial role in forming students' approaches to problem-solving in physics. We investigated the grading practices and considerations of 43 graduate teaching assistants (TAs). The TAs were asked to grade a set of specially designed student solutions and explain their grading decisions. We found that in a quiz context, a majority of TAs noticed but did not grade on solution features which promote expert-like approaches to problem-solving. In addition, TAs graded differently in quiz and homework contexts, partly because of how they considered time limitations in a quiz. Our findings can inform professional development programs for TAs.