Looking for Opinions on Policies for Maintaining High Performance

Looking for opinions regarding some pedagogical concepts I'd imagined somewhat recently:

For background, my AP Physics class sucks. Not as in the subject matter sucks, we as a class are bad at physics. We consistently average between 50 and 70 on evaluations. I initially tried to fight against this by tutoring and studying with large groups of peers but it wasn't effective enough for the amount of time and effort it took. I tried to identify the cause of the issue and concluded that the most likely suspects are the extreme lack of homework assigned and the large gap in difficulty between in class practice and the evaluations.

In considering these issues I developed these ideas regarding how this could be avoided had I been the teacher:

• Establish a policy where for the first chapter, homework is assigned but is not graded. Whether it's graded for the following chapter could be determined by one of two ways, of which I'm unsure which is best:
  1. Require a class average of 85-90% (teacher's decision where to draw the line) on the chapter test. This may encourage the students to pressure themselves into doing the homework if they're weak on the subject to avoid penalizing their classmates, or encourage students to cooperate and study together to ensure that everyone is doing well enough to keep things as they are. On the other hand it may incite tension between students who underperform despite doing their best and students who perform well (and maybe do so without much effort).

2. Apply #1 but to the individual as opposed to the class. Just be clear that as long as the students methodology is working, there's no concern. But if things aren't working out the way they are, it will be necessary to adhere to your methodology. 

• Give an assessment 50-75% through the chapter to identify holes in the students' knowledge; offer to revoke their bad grade if they perform well on the chapter evaluation. This helps the student see where they're struggling without greatly disturbing their peace.

I felt that these two things could definitely raise our class average, and planned on trying them one day in the distant future when/if I become a professor. I'd like to know your guys opinions. I'd also like to know what age group this would be most appropriate for. I intended this go be used with high school and college students, but let me know if you disagree.

Submitted March 31, 2019 at 04:13PM by Cephea_Coerulea https://ift.tt/2FHzRB2