This course, as well as all others I
teach at Hamline University, is geared toward undergraduate students. To many
students, the courses I teach will be their introduction to the topic of the
particular class. Often, I find the metaphor of the smorgasbord to be a useful
one. At a smorgasbord one usually goes up and sizes out what is there and ends
up putting small portions representative of the spectrum of food offerings on
their plate. Then, back at the table, bites are taken and the decision to go
back for more of a particular dish are made. The array of different kinds of
foods whets the appetite, but it is in the trying that one decides where to go
on.
For me, introductory classes are much
the same. Throughout a semester, portions of a particular disciplines are
presented as an array of intellectual offerings. It is up to the student to
taste as much as possible, but ultimately, they are the ones that will decide
to return for more, in this case, disciplinary depth.
Years ago, when I was a Teaching
Assistant under Dennis Puleston, he told me that examinations "should
never punish a student, but should always be an educational experience."
This has had implications for the way that I grade (assess) students. Again, a
metaphor seems appropriate. Imagine that you had some kind of medical
condition, say, a sprained ankle. If you went to the doctor and were told,
"You have a sprained ankle that you have because you X'd it," and
then were ushered back to the exit. You would most likely not return to that
doctor. On the other hand, if given the same sprained ankle, you went to the
doctor and were given a diagnosis, followed by a set of ways to make it well
again, you might still limp away, but your ankle would heal and you would
probably go back again to the same physician.
My own personal observation is that
much grading that is done tends often to be more like that found in the first
scenario. Grades are often judgements - verdicts - leaving the student
feeling sadness or anger or some combination of the two, but without
necessarily assisting them to better understand the material. I have opted to
treat grading and assessment more in line with the latter case.
In fact, if we educators back up and
"step out of the box" and consider what we are trying to do, it
should become clear that what is most important is what students walk out of
our classes with on the last day of the course. Grading and assessment should
be primarily for them, the students. We want them to leave our classes
empowered with knowledge - facts, strategies, methodologies, etc. - that
will enable them to be our colleagues!
Furthermore, we want them to be able
and willing to assist and collaborate with others to learn and be productive
members of our discipline. Hence, we should find ways to encourage such
ethics. Much of the grading practices I have witnessed has in fact encouraged
the opposite, primarily through the practice of grade curving. What, and who,
does curving serve? It may provide a statistical breakdown of student
performance that allows us to report student grading to others. Beyond that,
does it truly serve the student? In our culture we are habituated to finding
out where we statistically fit within such bell curves. For me, it is merely
another kind of "verdict" that can often do more harm than good. In
fact, it clearly establishes that excellence can only be a scarce commodity,
so, if you are one who has been labeled a "C-students," why should
you try harder? Furthermore, instead of encouraging collaboration, curving
tends to isolate students and promote competition. There is nothing wrong with
trying to excel, but to do so in a manner that does so de facto at the
expense of others, seems ultimately counterproductive.
In my classes I do not curve. I
assume that students may do poorly on my first examinations. This can be the
result of a host of factors - laziness, misplaced emphasis in their studies,
being tired and overly-worked, "test anxiety." Often it is because
of unfamiliarity with my approach, with them often wanting to know what the
right answer is. Often there is no single right answer. My
examinations are designed to help students learn where they will have to do
more work. Grades, therefore, are negotiable and can change when, and if, the
student later comes in and demonstrates that they now have a command of the
material they seemed to lack in their exam. Again, I am most concerned with
what they walk out of my class with in their heads on the last day of class.
If that means that I must change their first (of three) exams from an
"F" to an "A," so be it, provided they have clearly
demonstrated that they now have a comfortable grasp of the subject matter.
This strategy means that an
instructor must be willing to spend considerable amounts of time and often
engage one-on-one with students wanting help. It does not mean a "free
gift." My experience is that students are sincerely appreciative of this
approach and will take advantage of it. They are the ones who leave the class
and who show up in later classes with increased confidence in the subject
matter and with a willingness to help others who find themselves floundering.
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