5 ms·

<3 this. For technical courses, where work can be objectively right and wrong, specifications grading, aka standards-based grading, aka mastery based grading, i

<3 this. For technical courses, where work can be objectively right and wrong, specifications grading, aka standards-based grading, aka mastery based grading, is 100% the way to go. There are some "ungrading" practices that are useful, but the grade earned serves an important credentialing step, and clearly showing students the skills they need to master is the whole dang point.

avs733 5y ago
two notes: 1) I would argue that most questions we are asking students in technical courses shouldn't have right and wrong answers...it communicates the wrong thing and reinforces the assumption that technical work is 'getting the right answer' for students. College level technical teaching should work beyond that norm towards using 'right answers' for decision making 2) While there are similarities and they are often used interchangably, standards based, mastery based, and specifications grading are not exactly the same thing.
- MengerSponge 5y ago
  1) Fair point. The problem-solving technique is the most important part, but from this physicist's perspective, there is work that is objectively wrong, and there is basically always a limited set of solution approaches and results that I'd consider fully correct. Making the leap from "right answers" to "right thinking for decision making" is the key indicator of the expertise we want to train, and it doesn't happen just by making feedback less clear ;) 2) True! You really have to be careful even within terminologies. There are lots of different implementations of mastery-based grading, for example, and they're subtly different. And a final note: we're of dangerously similar (but not quite the same) perspectives! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANNX_XiuA78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANNX_XiuA78
  - avs733 5y ago
    Friend?
    - MengerSponge 5y ago
      Yup! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-ZUDtaGf3I&t=21s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-ZUDtaGf3I&t=21s

avs733 5y ago

two notes: 1) I would argue that most questions we are asking students in technical courses shouldn't have right and wrong answers...it communicates the wrong thing and reinforces the assumption that technical work is 'getting the right answer' for students. College level technical teaching should work beyond that norm towards using 'right answers' for decision making 2) While there are similarities and they are often used interchangably, standards based, mastery based, and specifications grading are not exactly the same thing.

MengerSponge 5y ago
1) Fair point. The problem-solving technique is the most important part, but from this physicist's perspective, there is work that is objectively wrong, and there is basically always a limited set of solution approaches and results that I'd consider fully correct. Making the leap from "right answers" to "right thinking for decision making" is the key indicator of the expertise we want to train, and it doesn't happen just by making feedback less clear ;) 2) True! You really have to be careful even within terminologies. There are lots of different implementations of mastery-based grading, for example, and they're subtly different. And a final note: we're of dangerously similar (but not quite the same) perspectives! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANNX_XiuA78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANNX_XiuA78
- avs733 5y ago
  Friend?
  - MengerSponge 5y ago
    Yup! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-ZUDtaGf3I&t=21s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-ZUDtaGf3I&t=21s