On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, Dogan Kokdemir wrote:
> I have a problem in grading students; that is, most of the
> students (if not all) study for taking "A"s "B"s .. etc. and most
> of them are ready for getting "C" if you gurantee that nobody
> wants them to do things for the lecture.
>
> More importantly, I believed that there are unneglible amount of
> students with very high motivation and effort. Unfortunately, I am
> not sure that by concentrating on "bad" students I loose the
> contact with "good" students or not. In other words, I want "good"
> students to get "A"s and "B"s and want "bad" students to get "F"s.
> ... And the question:
>
> Does it sound good for you that I will give "A" and "A-" for the
> (let's say) top %5 of the students wherease give "F" and "D"s for
> the last %5 regardless of their actual score on the lecture. I
> know this curve mechanism can be stresfull for most of the
> students but I wonder by this method I could discriminate "bad"s
> from "good"s.
I'm not sure I understand what Dogan is proposing here. He might be
suggesting that he increase the mark of "good" students and decrease
the mark of "bad" students based on other considerations than test
performance. If so, I don't think this is a good idea. We all form
subjective impressions concerning who is likely to do well or who
deserves to do well in our courses, and sometimes we're disappointed.
But I think that it's unclear whether it's our judgement or our tests
that's at fault. Research (e.g. the work of Robin Dawes, I believe)
indicates that objective (actuarian) measures are superior to
judgements formed on the basis of subjective impresssions. So I'd have
to say that test scores should be considered better indicators of
performance of who the "good" students are than one's own impressions,
no matter how much we may feel otherwise. In addition, there's the
problem of fairness. If you adjust test scores to fit what you think
the students should be getting, this is likely to lead to students
reacting with mistrust and resentment. As well they should. Of course,
if the test scores are producing strange results, this would suggest
that perhaps they need to be revised so that they really do
distinguish between good students and poor students.
On the other hand, if Dogan is merely asking whether we should grade
on the curve (adjust the marks to fit the overall class performance),
I'm against that as well. When I give an exam, its point is to see how
well the students have learned the course material, not to compare
them with each other. So the mark is an absolute indicator, not a
relative one.
-Stephen
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC
J1M 1Z7
Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at:
http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
