Quality, Not Quantity
I'm in a class now where the T.A. has a list of names in front of her. Whenever a student makes a comment, the T.A. places a check mark by that student's name.
At the end of the term, all of those check marks will be added together and we, the students, will receive scores based upon our participation. These scores will be worth 15% of our grade in the class.
Now, from my previous post, it should be clear that I have a problem with the concept of grading individuals on the basis of their participation in class. In part, this is because it allows professors to reward sycophants; but it is also because, wherever there is a class participation grade, there are two to three times as many comments made. Anything over the mean is usually irrelevant. So you can imagine what this particular class is like.
I have a real interest in the material being presented here. I just want more quality discussion. To the professor's credit, he displayed considerably less patience today for students whose ideas were not well-developed. But he'd have a lot less of that if he changed his grading.
At the end of the term, all of those check marks will be added together and we, the students, will receive scores based upon our participation. These scores will be worth 15% of our grade in the class.
Now, from my previous post, it should be clear that I have a problem with the concept of grading individuals on the basis of their participation in class. In part, this is because it allows professors to reward sycophants; but it is also because, wherever there is a class participation grade, there are two to three times as many comments made. Anything over the mean is usually irrelevant. So you can imagine what this particular class is like.
I have a real interest in the material being presented here. I just want more quality discussion. To the professor's credit, he displayed considerably less patience today for students whose ideas were not well-developed. But he'd have a lot less of that if he changed his grading.
posted by Jerry Blank at 6:53 PM
4 Comments:
I could agree no less JB, I went for a second bachelors in my late 20's... and some kids who fancy the concept of babbling just wasted a lot of the class time....though at the MBA level it would be more meaningful...but then some people are just running after the check marks
We have found here that in every cohort there is one person who just likes to hear themselves speak. No more than one, but one in each. It's weird. Not just the first year either, the second years had the same experience.
Same problem at LBS. I even blogged about this a few weeks ago.
We definitely encounter the same thing at Rice. I usually try to have something meaningful to say, but there's one class where (a) he assigns a lot of reading and (b) a large portion of our grade is participation-based. So, one day last week, I caught myself raising my hand to get points and saying something that I thought made sense, but because I didn't do all the reading, might not have. It was about the HP/Compaq merger, so I immediately IM'd my friend on the other side of the room who worked for HP. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Was that correct or am I full of it?"
Me: "I just said that to get participation points, you know."
Him: "Good man."
I must say, however, that I agree with Keven's point as well. There is one guy in our class who talks ALL THE TIME, even when he has absolutely nothing relevant to say. My comment was just one comment and was somewhat insightful, even if not straight from the text. His are just ludicrous.
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