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I guess what people are arguing is your assumption that if you don't grade homework, students won't try to do it. I understand it's common in North America to
by j7ake 5y ago
I guess what people are arguing is your assumption that if you don't grade homework, students won't try to do it.
I understand it's common in North America to have TAs grade homework. But in many places in Europe (top places), they do not grade homework but provide solutions. The only thing that matters is a semester project and a final exam.
That is a real-life counter-example to your assumption. The students indeed try to do the exercises in earnest. And TAs can be useful by providing in-person discussion, rather than grading exercises.
Everybody wins in the end.
- xyzzyz 5y agoI was, in fact, a TA at a university in Europe, and, rest assured, not all students earnestly tried to do the exercises. Moreover, very few students are interested in in-person discussion: we had office hours twice a week, but few people ever came, except during the week before midterms and finals. I had many discussions about it with professors. One of them is pretty active in Facebook group for students, reminding them of the office hours, where they can get free one-on-one tutoring. Still, most of the time nobody comes to his office hours anyway. I think the conclusion here is very simple: students are not there to learn, they are there to pass exams and earn the diploma.