Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!yale-com!mwolf From: mwolf@yale-com.UUCP (Anne G. Wolf) Newsgroups: net.cse Subject: Re: Grades Message-ID: <2663@yale-com.UUCP> Date: Tue, 3-Jan-84 13:32:45 EST Article-I.D.: yale-com.2663 Posted: Tue Jan 3 13:32:45 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 4-Jan-84 03:11:31 EST Lines: 69 Grades should be a means, not an end. ------------------------------------- 1. The Purpose of a Course I think that a course should have only one goal, to arrange things so that the students learn the material taught in the course. For those who believe that the particular material in certain courses will become out-of-date in the near future, I could change the purpose to giving students practice in acquiring knowledge of a certain kind (on the assumption that the experience of learning one thing now will assist a student in learning something else in the future). However, I don't think that this distinction is very important. It is also not important whether the effort comes mostly from the students or mostly from the person teaching the course. It is just important that the information be transferred one way or another. 2. The Purpose of Grades Grades help learning in two ways. The grades given during the course give the students a way to tell the extent to which they have been successful in learning the material. The final grade is an incentive for students to do whatever is necessary to learn the material, even when it is not fun. I think it is a great shame if people constrain what they teach or what they ask students to do because of grades. Grades should be a means not an end. Grades should not impede learning. When they do, they are being used in the wrong way. 3. How I Wish People Would Teach 3a. Making Students' Obligations Clear Although I am an undergraduate, and I have yet to teach a course, I strongly agree with people who say that a professor or instructor should make clear at the beginning what the students' obligations are and how success in meeting those obligations will be judged. Let me also suggest that any assignment should always be attempted by a professor, instructor, or TA, before being given to the students, so that impossible or unexpectedly difficult assignments are avoided, and the assignment does not have to be changed shortly before the due-date, because of questions raised by the students who are trying to finish it. (This last problem is the reason why most students don't start assignments until the last minute.) 3b. How Much Work Should Students Do? Another thing that I wish people teaching courses would consider more often when decided what students are obligated to do is that most students take 4 or 5 courses at once. Students must divide their time between courses. Thus, if each of five courses has an assignment each week which takes as little as eight hours to complete (and that is not a large assignment by the standards of most courses I have taken) this means that students already have the equivalent of a full-time job in addition to the lectures, labs, and whatever part-time work they may have to do to pay for their education. When considering whether an assignment is too much to finish, find out how long it will take by attempting it yourself (or getting someone else to attempt it), then allow for the lack of expertise on the part of students, then multiply by the average number of courses which students take. It is unrealistic to assume that students will fail all of their other courses for the sake of yours, and yet, many people teach as though their course were the only one. Think about it. Mary-Anne Wolf (decvax!yale-comix!mwolf)