3 ms·

I can understand the author's sentiments, but at the same time, fear of grade inflation has let to administrators pressuring professors to have a "C" average <-

by 0thgen 7y ago

I can understand the author's sentiments, but at the same time, fear of grade inflation has let to administrators pressuring professors to have a "C" average <-- i think this pressure is a far worse problem than grade inflation. Rather than aiming to get every student to the highest level, professors are pressured into using reverse-curving and other tactics (trick questions, ambiguous study guides) to artificially "deflate" students scores. And that seems totally backwards. If i took my car to a mechanic, I expect them to fix my car 100%; so why do we expect professors to produce students with 75% achievement? Professors are supposed to be in the business of teaching, not assessing.

Dirlewanger 7y ago
Not a good analogy. Mechanics diagnose and fix problems. Professors impart knowledge onto others; whether students fully absorb everything is another issue (ignoring the professor's competence).
- 0thgen 7y ago
  Then I guess the debate should be what a professor's job should be: (a) reciting imperfect knowledge & theory to students without regard for whether it's accurate or digestible, or (b) maximizing students knowledge of the material (without reducing the amount of material students need to learn).
mrep 7y ago
> pressuring professors to have a "C" average <-- i think this pressure is a far worse problem than grade inflation. Rather than aiming to get every student to the highest level, professors are pressured into using reverse-curving and other tactics (trick questions, ambiguous study guides) to artificially "deflate" students scores. Depends on how you look at it. I went to a school that bell curved around a C for most core classes and most of the curving wasn't "deflating scores" but rather making the class hard enough that there was a wide distribution of scores which made identifying the people who understood the most material clear. Having everyone get A's may make you feel good, but then you are most likely holding people back as there is no way for them to work harder and stand out if it is so easy that everyone is getting A's. Also, that competitive environment tends to make everyone work harder so they learn more. While I'm not saying there shouldn't be schools where it is easy to get A's and B's, I am 100% glad I went to one that pushed me as hard as they did as I learned a ton and I have gotten very good job offers since graduating.
- 0thgen 7y ago
  It's very easy to provide opportunities for the best students to excel (eg, higher level courses, research opportunities). But if somebody enrolls Stats 101, it should be the goal of the professor to get every student to _learn_ Stats 101, not to produce a majority of students with mediocre understanding
asdff 7y ago
They are in the business of lecturing and assessing, not teaching you how to learn. In college, you are expected to teach yourself. It's why they have libraries, it's why you might only have classes for 10 hours a week. Any tough class I've had always had a few students get a near perfect score. They were given the exact same lectures, content, and resources as people who failed the class (myself included sometimes), but all they did was engage with it more thoroughly outside of class. The professors job isn't to hold your hand and pull you through college, like a high school teacher might, it's to just lay out what's expected of you to pass the class. Whether or not you go home and put in the work you personally need to comprehend it as well as some of your peers is entirely up to your own circumstances. It's not even the school's job to educate you. The school's job is to provide you with the resources you need to pass your classes. Whether or not you receive an education is entirely up to you.
- 0thgen 7y ago
  Doing everything you can to teach students material isn't the same as "hand holding". While much of the responsibility of learning should fall on the student, it's still the professor's job (imo) to present the material in a way that maximizes students' understanding. It seems absurd that high school teachers go through more education training than college professors (most of which never actually take any education training at all).

by 0thgen 7y ago

Dirlewanger 7y ago

Not a good analogy. Mechanics diagnose and fix problems. Professors impart knowledge onto others; whether students fully absorb everything is another issue (ignoring the professor's competence).

0thgen 7y ago
Then I guess the debate should be what a professor's job should be: (a) reciting imperfect knowledge & theory to students without regard for whether it's accurate or digestible, or (b) maximizing students knowledge of the material (without reducing the amount of material students need to learn).

mrep 7y ago

> pressuring professors to have a "C" average <-- i think this pressure is a far worse problem than grade inflation. Rather than aiming to get every student to the highest level, professors are pressured into using reverse-curving and other tactics (trick questions, ambiguous study guides) to artificially "deflate" students scores. Depends on how you look at it. I went to a school that bell curved around a C for most core classes and most of the curving wasn't "deflating scores" but rather making the class hard enough that there was a wide distribution of scores which made identifying the people who understood the most material clear. Having everyone get A's may make you feel good, but then you are most likely holding people back as there is no way for them to work harder and stand out if it is so easy that everyone is getting A's. Also, that competitive environment tends to make everyone work harder so they learn more. While I'm not saying there shouldn't be schools where it is easy to get A's and B's, I am 100% glad I went to one that pushed me as hard as they did as I learned a ton and I have gotten very good job offers since graduating.

0thgen 7y ago
It's very easy to provide opportunities for the best students to excel (eg, higher level courses, research opportunities). But if somebody enrolls Stats 101, it should be the goal of the professor to get every student to _learn_ Stats 101, not to produce a majority of students with mediocre understanding

asdff 7y ago

They are in the business of lecturing and assessing, not teaching you how to learn. In college, you are expected to teach yourself. It's why they have libraries, it's why you might only have classes for 10 hours a week. Any tough class I've had always had a few students get a near perfect score. They were given the exact same lectures, content, and resources as people who failed the class (myself included sometimes), but all they did was engage with it more thoroughly outside of class. The professors job isn't to hold your hand and pull you through college, like a high school teacher might, it's to just lay out what's expected of you to pass the class. Whether or not you go home and put in the work you personally need to comprehend it as well as some of your peers is entirely up to your own circumstances. It's not even the school's job to educate you. The school's job is to provide you with the resources you need to pass your classes. Whether or not you receive an education is entirely up to you.

0thgen 7y ago
Doing everything you can to teach students material isn't the same as "hand holding". While much of the responsibility of learning should fall on the student, it's still the professor's job (imo) to present the material in a way that maximizes students' understanding. It seems absurd that high school teachers go through more education training than college professors (most of which never actually take any education training at all).