Hi I'll take Louis's questions in a somewhat different order, and then ask some of my own.
On Fri, 5 Oct 2001, Louis_Schmier wrote: > Second, what is learning? Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour (including thinking behaviour) due to experience and not other causes (e.g., senility). Psychologists have devoted considerable time and energy to trying to understand learning. > First, how does a grade document any level or degree of learning? In principle, a grade can reflect many such changes in behaviour, including: (a) ability to solve problems, (b) being able to argue effectively for and against positions, (c) having the competency to commmunicate clearly and effectively, (d) demonstrating sensitivity to subtle emotional or cognitive cues in text, (e) being able to read complex material and both understand and remember what one has read, and so on pretty much endlessly. > Fifth, how is inflation to be defined? What are its determining measures? Inflation is measured when there appears to be some increase in the grades received without evidence of a corresponding increase in the material learned. In extreme cases, lower performance on the many potential dimensions, as partially listed above, might be associated with higher grades. > Third, what is subject mastery? It is possible in many areas to set some threshold of knowledge above which someone is prepared to function effectively in that area. Often in educational settings, this threshold is lower at lower grade levels on the assumption that "true" or "final" mastery is something that cannot be determined until the end of the program. But there are steps along the way that need to be mastered if one hopes to arrive at the end point. > Fourth, where are the universal criteria for grading in any > institution? Here is the rub. In a properly functioning educational system, people who become professors would have demonstrated themselves that they had acquired certain competencies, largely related to critical thinking, clear communication, ability to discriminate between sense and nonsense, and the like. And they would try to apply these competencies to teaching and evaluation, unfettered by irrelevant considerations, such as politics, compassion, and the like. (Note: it is not that they lack such feelings as compassion for students, but that they recognize that the proper use of these feelings is to motivate them to help students learn the material, not to award grades that do not reflect student understanding or to otherwise evade their responsibilities as educators). At least in some people's minds, including a bit my own, there appear to be influences from outside and within academia that encourage less rigorous expectations of students, although others have argued that the quality of work has not deteriorated and perhaps even as increased over the decades. Just one of the pressures is more liberal grading practices in some departments than others. I'm aware the whole story is more complicated than I have presented here, but neither is it nearly as bleak and stark as Louis's questions would suggest. Best wishes Jim ============================================================================ James M. Clark (204) 786-9757 Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax University of Winnipeg 4L05D Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED] CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark ============================================================================ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
