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That is the hardest part of teaching for me. After a semester of working with students. I am looking at a spreadsheet assigning them semi-arbitrary values. Grad

by Rhapso 11y ago

That is the hardest part of teaching for me. After a semester of working with students. I am looking at a spreadsheet assigning them semi-arbitrary values. Grades are not fair. I give a lot of sub-grades on assignments and projects in an attempt to correct for error but I still don't feel great about the signal to noise ratio there. The only thing I grade on is an ability to communicate mastery, rather than mastery itself. There is not much I can do about that.

davidgrenier 11y ago
Maybe I don't understand what you said... but I have a feeling introverts would get penalized? Have you read Quiet?
NhanH 11y ago
I don't think anyone has ever solved the issue of "communicate mastery" vs "mastery" itself: in our field, that's pretty much why recruiting/ hiring/ interview is a big fat giant clusterfuck. Is it actually an issue with grad students worrying about being kicked out? That would be completely bizarre and unthinkable to me: I thought it would be at worst jeopardize the student's TA ship or some silly thing with quals.
- Rhapso 11y ago
  If you are here from another country on student visa, your TA ship is what is keeping you here. Being a student is a condition of your visa and such a visa will not allow you to find general employment. If you lose funding you cannot afford to live and if you get a job you get deported. http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/students-and-exchange-visitors/students-and-employment http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/students-and-exch...
woliveirajr 11y ago
That's a very good approach, and I'm glad that there are some teachers that have this knowledge.
Lawtonfogle 11y ago
>The only thing I grade on is an ability to communicate mastery, rather than mastery itself. Is there really a difference? The brightest math genius, if he is unable to communicate his mastery in any way, is no better than the average individual. To me the problem seems to be that grading is based on communicating mastery in a highly artificial situation. How often is a programmer or scientist needing to work under the same conditions as on a test? How often is an engineer supposed to receive zero input from their peers before completing a design? How often does the average student need to know the 50 states and their capitals when looking it up is not an option?
- Rhapso 11y ago
  Well, you seem to have demonstrated the difference pretty clearly in your answer (which indicates we are quibbling over terms) From my perspective "communicating mastery" is exactly what you describe. I am limited to the context and expectations of a classroom. So students being able to pass tests is at the root of "Communicating Mastery" whereas mastery itself would be the ability to do the job in "real life" The only solution I've found is to design tests and projects that focus on describing the process rather than the result. I give a lesson on "How to take a test in Computer Science" in every class I teach which is mostly about un-teaching them how to take tests. I tell them: - Every question is an essay question, even if you are suppose to pick from a list of answers. The only true multiple choice is a scantron test, which I don't give. - If a question is vague, either ask for clarification or even better: - make assumptions - be aware of those assumptions (this is really what I want to test for) - write them down as part of your answer - If there are many reasonable assumptions, enumerate them and if there is space and time, answer the question for each of them. I've had students answer a memorization question with: "The solution is to look this up" and given them full credit for a correct answer. The real problem at this point is not how a specific test is run, but rather that our education systems has trained students to think inside a very small box when taking tests, and students become often paralyzed with indecision when asked to act outside that box. Most of my students have never experienced socratic method, and are honestly scared of it.
  - Lawtonfogle 11y ago

by Rhapso 11y ago

davidgrenier 11y ago

Maybe I don't understand what you said... but I have a feeling introverts would get penalized? Have you read Quiet?

NhanH 11y ago

I don't think anyone has ever solved the issue of "communicate mastery" vs "mastery" itself: in our field, that's pretty much why recruiting/ hiring/ interview is a big fat giant clusterfuck. Is it actually an issue with grad students worrying about being kicked out? That would be completely bizarre and unthinkable to me: I thought it would be at worst jeopardize the student's TA ship or some silly thing with quals.

Rhapso 11y ago
If you are here from another country on student visa, your TA ship is what is keeping you here. Being a student is a condition of your visa and such a visa will not allow you to find general employment. If you lose funding you cannot afford to live and if you get a job you get deported. http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/students-and-exchange-visitors/students-and-employment http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/students-and-exch...

woliveirajr 11y ago

That's a very good approach, and I'm glad that there are some teachers that have this knowledge.

Lawtonfogle 11y ago

>The only thing I grade on is an ability to communicate mastery, rather than mastery itself. Is there really a difference? The brightest math genius, if he is unable to communicate his mastery in any way, is no better than the average individual. To me the problem seems to be that grading is based on communicating mastery in a highly artificial situation. How often is a programmer or scientist needing to work under the same conditions as on a test? How often is an engineer supposed to receive zero input from their peers before completing a design? How often does the average student need to know the 50 states and their capitals when looking it up is not an option?

Rhapso 11y ago
Well, you seem to have demonstrated the difference pretty clearly in your answer (which indicates we are quibbling over terms) From my perspective "communicating mastery" is exactly what you describe. I am limited to the context and expectations of a classroom. So students being able to pass tests is at the root of "Communicating Mastery" whereas mastery itself would be the ability to do the job in "real life" The only solution I've found is to design tests and projects that focus on describing the process rather than the result. I give a lesson on "How to take a test in Computer Science" in every class I teach which is mostly about un-teaching them how to take tests. I tell them: - Every question is an essay question, even if you are suppose to pick from a list of answers. The only true multiple choice is a scantron test, which I don't give. - If a question is vague, either ask for clarification or even better: - make assumptions - be aware of those assumptions (this is really what I want to test for) - write them down as part of your answer - If there are many reasonable assumptions, enumerate them and if there is space and time, answer the question for each of them. I've had students answer a memorization question with: "The solution is to look this up" and given them full credit for a correct answer. The real problem at this point is not how a specific test is run, but rather that our education systems has trained students to think inside a very small box when taking tests, and students become often paralyzed with indecision when asked to act outside that box. Most of my students have never experienced socratic method, and are honestly scared of it.
- Lawtonfogle 11y ago