grades
rallain | August 27, 2010It would be nice if I could come up with a good rhyme for grade to fit this title.
One of my brothers is a biochemistry faculty at Appalachian State University (hint - he is the one with the same last name that I have). We were talking (and surprisingly agreeing) that grades were dumb. What would happen if we stopped grading? Wouldn't that be awesome?
So, what would happen if there were no grades? Here are some thoughts.
We would only have one job in the class - help students learn. The second job of evaluating student understanding would only be there to help them learn more.
It would…
rallain | August 3, 2010You thought I was going to talk about a problem that math teachers could use, didn't you? Well, maybe math teachers can use this. (note: when I say "teachers" I really mean "learning facilitators")
It all started when I read this valedictorian speech from Erica Goldson. Here is part of it:
"I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the…
rallain | July 16, 2010I have been thinking about grades lately and I am pretty sure they are dumb. The main problem is that it seems that many many many people (politicians, parents, students, administrators, some other faculty, and zombies) think that the grade is the THE THING to worry about. Really, it is just a pale representation of the real thing.
This brings me to the allegory of the cave. I know you remember this when you read Plato's The Republic, right? Here is a picture that explains the whole thing:
I don't know where this image came from, it was on a boat load of other websites, none looked like…
rallain | June 14, 2010Suppose there was an imaginary university. (is that statement redundant?) Let me call this TIU (The Imaginary University). Also, suppose TIU offers summer courses. Further, suppose there is an instructor teaching 2 sections of lab during the summer. Here is a communication that instructor might have received.
Dear Person Teaching a Summer Course:
It appears you are teaching 2 sections of lab. One lab only has 13 students enrolled in it. We have determined that it is not financially appropriate for us to give you a full course pay for this partially full lab. We are going to pay you 13/…
rallain | May 25, 2010A note about the end of the semester (I really should have posted this a few weeks ago): sometimes I get students that come in and say they are not happy with their grade. It is not unusual for them to come in right before the test, but it seems more common to come after all the grades are finished. Here is a typical student:
"I really need a C (or D) in this class, but I have a 67%. Is there anything I can do to bring my grade up? Maybe I could do an extra project, or file some papers or wash your car?"
That is not one real student, but I have had students ask if they could file my…
rallain | May 20, 2010Grades are all over the place, but what are they? Well, I guess there are a few questions. What is a grade? What is the grade supposed to be? Why do we give grades?
I think the grade is supposed to be a measure of a students' understanding of the material. Probably everyone would agree with that description. But, it is still a bit tricky. Who (or what) determines what a student should understand? Who determines what an "A" means? Fortunately, there is not a governing body (yet at least in physics) that says what an "A" grade means. It is left up to the expert evaluations of faculty…
rallain | May 4, 2010Really, I have many jobs. But in this case, I am talking about my two jobs inside my one job as learning facilitator. I like to call myself a learning facilitator rather than a teacher or a professor because I can't make people learn (that would be teacher). Professor would imply that I am professing the truth. Well, I don't know if anyone knows the truth in science - I am sure I don't. So, I am going to stick with learning facilitator (LF).
In my official role as a LF, my institution has actually assigned two jobs:
Help students learn (my words, not theirs)
Evaluate students'…
rallain | April 2, 2010The current push in our state is to improve college graduation rates. Who could argue that is a bad thing? Having more students succeed in college is a good thing. The problem is assessing the performance of the state universities by looking primarily at graduation rates. Why? Simply - if the goal is to just raise graduation rates, that is easy to do. Just make sure more students pass. Is this really what we want? I think not.
Louisiana Governor Ricky Bobby Jindal compared the poor graduation rates of the state universities to a football coach without a winning season hinting that you…
rallain | March 25, 2010Think Thank Thunk is a relatively new blog from Shawn Cornally, a high school math and science teacher. I have found his posts to be quite entertaining. In Shawn's latest post, he talks about grades. You know I like to talk about grades. Shawn puts teacher into two groups in regards to their ideas about grades:
"
Grades should reflect a student's progress with course material. Where an A+ indicates mastery.
Grades should be an amalgam of student's knowledge, behavior, and anything else the teacher wants to control.
"
I was in the middle of posting a comment to this post, but it was…
edyong | April 16, 2009In American high schools, black students typically perform worse than their white peers, which can damage their self-esteem and their future prospects. Studies have found that the fear of living up to this underachieving stereotype can cause so much stress that a child's performance suffers. Their teachers may even write them off as lost causes, and spend less time on them.
With so many students caught in this vicious cycle, where the stereotype of poor performance strengthens itself, it might seem absurd to suggest that you could turn things round in less than an hour. But try telling that…
rallain | January 27, 2009Should you grade on a curve or not? If you are student, the answer is clear: go by whatever the instructor does. Otherwise, you have a choice. I don't like to tell other instructors or faculty what to do because I respect their freedom. For my classes, there is no curve. Why? Well, the question really is: "why grade on a curve?" I don't know the exact reason for particular instructors, but I can come up with some possible reasons.
Curve for competition
This is a very common curving reason. The basic idea is that the class is a competition between the students. The strong survive.…
rallain | September 17, 2008So here I was in thermal physics class. The students were talking about the assigned homework and then asked: "can't we get some homework credit for this? Why are we even doing this?" Immediately in my head popped "wax on, wax off". This was the same situation Mr. Miyagi (from [The Karate Kid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Karate_Kid)) was in with Daniel-san. Homework should not be done just for the points. Homework should help the students become more proficient at blocking blows from the test.
I really like the movie karate kid. Mr. Miyagi brings up some good points. How does…