As a student I know the feelings that the human body can create through stress, anxiety and the occasional dream of failure (or showing up to a presentation without pants). The stress, for me, is not in the content, its not even on the final presentation, it is on maintaining the 4.0 through the program. The desire to receive the appropriate grade stems back to grade school, and the amount of importance on academic excellence through standardized testing.
The experiment discussed in Chapter 3 of the book on giving an A truly inspired me as an educator. Allowing the students to write themselves a letter, stating why they received an “A” is a great way for introspective exercise.
I once had had a design professor say that he would not give anyone an A. The grades had been developed so that it was impossible to receive an A in his class. After more than half the class dropped, he came in the second day and said, “ Well, now we can get to work.” While I did not receive an A, the skills learned in that class are still utilized in my design projects, and I teach those same techniques in my courses. While his approach was unorthodox, and possibly inappropriate, the point I believe he was trying to make was that knowledge is not at the top of letter grade mountain.
As a graphic design teacher myself I have a hard time with my students just desiring a letter grade. They constantly try to just find out if what they have is good enough to make the grade or not. One way that I have learned to combat this is to just make the students work on something longer than I think it should take them to complete the work. This way the students don’t have a choice but to continually try to improve their work. More often than not my students are creating something that is better than what they expect out of themselves. Now as we are entering the fourth quarter I no longer have to give them time restraints, they just do the best they can right off and I give them whatever time that they need to complete their work.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I play Ultimate Frisbee every Friday with a number of my students on our football field to relieve some of that stress that we have experienced in the last few months.
I have to wonder about the value of an "A" grade in the situation you just described. If the professor refuses to give out As on principle, than a B just becomes the equivalent of an A, and instead of making a statement about the need for constant improvement and letting go of grade emphasis he's just artificially lowered everyone's GPA.
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder if professors like that and the people who follow "giving an A" are trying to accomplish the same general idea: encourage students to be constantly learning. That said, "giving an A" encourages positive exploration, while erasing the possibility of an A creates anxiety and frustration.
That professor may have thought he was weeding out the people who weren't serious about the course by proclaiming no one would receive an A, but he likely lost a lot of students who cared about the subject AND their GPA. Let's be honest, not everyone has the luxury of not being able to care about their grades. GPAs are often used to determine if you can get into school programs and post-graduate studies. A large number of scholarships also require maintaining a specific GPA. Even job applications occasionally ask for your GPA. In refusing to give As, that professor may have chased away people who would have given their all in his class but couldn't afford to potentially get a B or lower.
I appreciate how you graciously extended an A to the design professor in your comments. Knowledge, indeed, is not at the top of the letter grade mountain. We have been conditioned to strive for the grade. It is reflected when we and/or our students ask for what will be on the test. We all shoot for the A. It’s the mentality that states no one wins silver – they lost gold.
ReplyDeleteThe best part of our current reading – is the challenge to see our same world and circumstances with a different perspective. It’s funny how changing our perspective can actually change the world.
An interesting way to weed out the grade-fixated. I like the follow-up comments that this stunt might have also chased away students who cared about the subject matter and their grade. Great conversation.
ReplyDelete