Because it promotes cramming (see spaced vs. massed practice).
Material tends to be learned the night before and forgotten the next day.
At 8:50 AM -0600 3/19/01, Hatcher, Joe wrote:
>Hello all,
> Over the years I have learned the danger of being certain about
>anything concerning teaching, but one of the things that I am most certain
>of is that the final exam is not only the most important exam of the course,
>but is one of the best and most essential learning experiences of the
>course.
> Let me explain. If we look at exams as simply a means of
>determining how "good" a student someone is, and as a way to decide what
>grade to give them, then once a student has established themselves as "good"
>in a course and has indicated that A is the correct grade, then I would
>agree that there is no need for them to take the final.
> If, however, we believe, as I do, that exams primarily exist as
>tools for learning, then to pass up the final makes no sense at all (to
>me!). If you want your students to truly learn what you are teaching, why
>would you pass up an opportunity to review the semester, summarize and
>recall important points and threads of thought, and to reflect one more time
>on how the elements of the course work together to make a coherent whole?
>Isn't the whole idea to have someone remember something *after* the course
>is over? Wouldn't this be helped by having students confront the course as
>a whole one more time? It seems to me that a *conclusion* to the course is
>a bookend to the introduction that we do at the beginning. And, to me, a
>final exam is an important part of that conclusion. I spend considerable
>time creating a final study sheet that I think reflects the basic ideas of
>the course, and in upper level courses have students give input as to what
>these ideas are. No, I don't have evidence to support that this helps
>learning; given the low percentage of retained knowledge evidenced by
>another thread a few months ago, I don't have high hopes that learning is
>high. But to *not* give a final and to *not* require students to reconfront
>the material doesn't seem like it would help either...
> I'm curious what rationales people use who do not give final exams.
>
>Joe Hatcher
>Ripon College
>Ripon, WI 54971
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> ----------
>> From: Michael Sylvester
>> Sent: Monday, March 19, 2001 8:06 AM
>> To: TIPS
>> Subject: exempt from final
>>
>>
>> are there circumstances where you exempt a student from taking the final?
>> I have had one or two cases of very bright students getting A s in all
>> course work and who undoubtedly will get an A in the course.
>> At my discretion,I have told them that they do not have to take the final.
>> They were to perceive the exemption as a reward for maintaining
>> a hibh degree of intellectual consistency through-out the semester.
>>
>> Michael Sylvester,PhD
>> Daytona Beach,Florida
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
