I have been not-posting due to the joys of "grading jail" lately. In the system I work in, assessment mostly happens at two points in the academic year, because it's considered 'too stressful' for the lickle snowflakes to be assessed too often and we are only allowed to set a small number (2-3 max.) of assessed items per module. In order to assess the module contents, therefore, at least one of these has to happen at the end of the semester for every module. Hence, a marking-fest. What joy.
Does ANYONE actually enjoy marking? Anyway, on to recount my latest misery....
We had a 'compulsory professional development event' on assessment recently in the department (not-so-hidden agenda - raise our pass rate and % of A's awarded up to match the faculty norm, because students might not select our modules if they think they're hard), in which we were all told that whenever students do poorly, we should ask "what did I do to contribute to this?" and "how can I do better next time?" This seems pretty insulting to the students, since they are supposed to be adults, but is typical of the agenda of 'blame the prof' which seems to be the current rhetoric (I wait to find out how the 80% cut in teaching funding in the UK will be the prof's fault: there's already some "it's your fault for not explaining clearly enough why universities matter" type material floating around).
However, during this marking-fest I have been repeatedly driven to check my own lecture materials to make sure I DID teach what I THOUGHT I taught... how can 100-odd students (very odd students, some of them) ALL fail to mention the key point required to answer an essay question, when said question contained the 'trigger words' used in the classes? There the point was, clearly displayed in yellow-font-on-blue-ground (ugly, but 'strongly recommended' for the comfort of students with certain kinds of learning needs*), both in the middle of the lecture and in the summary at the end, the figure was reproduced on the handout and the concept given as one of the list of four 'key things you should know after this weeks' classes' for the week (this is as close as I get to giving out a study guide). The question was checked and approved by two different committees and the external examiner. So how was it my fault? I'm sure someone will tell me soon...
*ironically, my aging eyesight makes this lower-contrast type of slide harder to read. I write the darn things in black and white then change them to the approved colour... yet another little defeat ceded in hopes of keeping 'them' at bay (and continuing to be employed and have the means of paying the mortgage and buying cat food).
Wait, are you looking for a reasonable response for why they're all so stupid?
ReplyDeleteGet thee to a drinking station!
Loved this post.
ReplyDeleteBut at the risk of being unpopular, I would like to suggest that we could indeed all benefit if we looked at failing grades and asked ourselves "How did I contribute to this grade?"
Profs, more often than we'd like to admit, write increasingly confusing questions, syllabi, and project descriptions. And some profs seem allergic to helping a confused student, preferring to mock them rather than clarify for them.
Teaching low-income students have really shown me that they struggle with low self-esteem problems: the idea is that they expect to fail. So much around them is failure anyway. A little good will, an unexpected email, goes a long way to helping C-earning Charlie believe in himself and scrape by with a B. I'm not just speaking nonsense. The past 4 months I've changed my ways and I've noticed a striking response from my at-risk students.
I'm not advocating babysitting, although it sounds like I am. I just think that sometimes a little clarity, a little human touch, could help some of our students and diminish the number of failed grades.
I have a slightly different perspective from AM on the position of C- Charlie. My encounters with C- have been that C- is not, in fact, underprivileged. Instead, C- is rather used to the world owing him a living. He's in my office, demanding that I accept late work from him, despite my strict no-late-work policy. He's in my class, asking whether he missed anything "important" in the last lecture.
ReplyDeleteNow, I have encountered D Darryl. And Darryl, frequently, is in my office asking how he can do better. He responds well when I encourage him to take advantage of my "I will read an early draft of your paper" policy. He speaks up in class when he's called on to do so. He uses the learning resources available to all students. Dare I say it...he tries. I know I can't grade him for "trying," but that trying often translates into higher grades.
(I should say, too, that it's just as often C- Sara and D Dolly.)
@Blackdog
ReplyDeleteOh, I'll grant you that a million times. Lean-back Lenny does NOT deserve the "hey" email. But Dawdling Doris who looks all meek and tentative and obviously feels lost will work wonders if you notice her and then send her an unexpected email.
I'm not sure exactly what counts as an "assessment" in your system, but it strikes me that one of the problems with limiting the number of them might be that it rules out the sort of early-in-the-term low-stakes-but-still-graded assignments that help identify the quiet but dedicated and emergingly-competent students that Monkey describes. Such mini-assessments also, of course, serve as useful warnings/screening devices for slackers. It's a lot easier to distinguish the D-Darryls from the C-Charlies if you have the chance to examine their responses to a reasonably challenging but lightly-graded assignment that draws heavily on the assigned reading/preparation.
ReplyDelete@Academic Monkey - yes, I agree, IN MODERATION. Hence my looking back to check that I had indeed taught the concept, emphasised its importance (via the handout and key ideas list), and had the question approved. I can tell you where I went wrong - a) in not mentioning the EXACT WORD in the question, just giving effectively a definition of the concept and b) in setting a question which required selection from among the material, not 'regurgitate lecture 3' but 'regurgitate a specific part of lecture 3 and a couple of examples'. Silly me, I thought that by setting a question on only PART of a class's material I was actually accomodating the fact that handwritten closed-book fixed-time exams are hard for students, especially sicne the texting generation don't write much by hand any more, by requiring a relatively short answer.
ReplyDelete@ContingentCassandra - this is EXACTLY my argument to the powers that be. Many students really value low-points assignments early in the module so that they can find out how they're doing, feel out my particular requirements (whatever we say about unified departmental expectations, we all know that different profs have slightly different marking schemes, 'blue touch paper' writing errors (I hate apostrophe abuse and effect/affect confusion in particular - my next door office neighbour goes ballistic over been/being confusion) and concepts of what a good lab report or essay is) and just get a little bit of the grade under their belt. And such assignments are a great way to pick out the students who will really benefit from a little encouragement, a little pushing, a little extra cheerleading. Because one of the reasons I am Grumpy is that I CANNOT support everyone in every class like that - I don't have the reserves to care about every snowflake when so often there's no reward.
Supporting first generation university students (who are often but not always low-income) is one of the perks of this job... when they are indeed capable and willing, just lacking in the tools including the confidence to demonstrate their capabilities. However, The Powers That Be consider that over-assessing these students is what stresses them and causes them to drop out, and that is clearly the Prof's fault.
"In the system I work in, assessment mostly happens at two points in the academic year, because it's considered 'too stressful' for the lickle snowflakes to be assessed too often and we are only allowed to set a small number (2-3 max.) of assessed items per module. "
ReplyDeleteSo, it's less stressful on the students to take five exams, none worth over 15% of the final grade, than it is to take three exams, each worth at least 30% of the final grade? That is news to me.