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From: cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Posting grades (Was Re: Student and Course Integrity)
Summary: Objective grading is objectionable.
Message-ID: <1081@l.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 28 Dec 88 20:39:41 GMT
References: <5129@bsu-cs.UUCP> <4302@teklds.CAE.TEK.COM> <6125@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> <864@atux01.UUCP>
Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department
Lines: 31

In article <864@atux01.UUCP>, gal@atux01.UUCP (G. Levine) writes:
> One thing we seem to be missing in this whole discussion is
> the disparity of the instructors' grading systems.  I took a course
> in Math Education when I was in college (Ohio University), and
> the first day the instructor gave out a student's completed math
> test.  Some problems were right, some wrong, but the test was not
> marked as to how much each problem was worth.  The instructor said
> to assign our own values and grade this test.  The test grades varied
> from the mid-30s to the mid-80s on the EXACT SAME TEST.  It really
> drove home to me how little grades can really mean.

I agree grades are not very meaningful, but that is a poor argument.  Even if
the values of the problems were given, there would still be disparate grading.
What is being graded? Different people grade for different things, and usually
the unimportant stuff gets the most emphasis.  Multiple choice grading is one
of the unfortunate educational "improvements" whose results are catastrophic.

I look for understanding what is to be done, and I will frequently give full
credit for the last part of a problem if it is done correctly using the 
erroneous results of the first part; that is the hardest situation for giving
partial credit.  I always tell the students to put down all their work, and
sometimes I even do not give credit for the right answer if obtained by the
wrong method.

This is what is needed in the evaluation of mathematics; not the memorization
of techniques, the plugging into formulas, and other imitations of a computer.
The imporatant parts cannot be graded objectively.
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@l.cc.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet, UUCP)