Statistical differences in over 1000 Student Lab Reports and 9000 Lab TA comments using new Experimental Design Pedagogy

At a rate of 700+ students/year implementation of this experimental design (ED) pedagogy, 4.5 years of data was collected. This ED pedagogy moves the lab culture from cookbook labs into inquiry-based deviations, and towards a research-based final project. Three ED thought spheres scaffold all labs into cookbook-based pattern recognition: measurements (M), calculations (C), and variations (V). Three ED connection pathways teach students how, when and why scientists critically think about doing science (regression versus derivation approaches) using 3 interconnected stages Design, Data, and Analysis. With Google Classroom, Lab TAs wrote feedback comments as well as the rubric-based grades for student lab reports in one term alone. We analyzed all comments in terms of total words, tone, complexity, and probing level. It was hypothesized that the tone of Lab TA comments were correlated to student evaluations; however, it was complexity, word count, and probing level of comments which were correlated to student evaluations (and final exam scores). We discuss future research into the differences between Teaching/Learning pair types: Judging Teacher and Obedient Student (Active-Reactive) versus the Socratic Teacher and Constructive Student (Reactive-Active).