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Re: more about adjuncts [HAPP-L]




1. Can someone give me an operational definition of mark inflation (marking
too easy, making tests too easy, increasing grades above an expected
predetermined outcome)? I keep hearing this term thrown around...who is to
say, then, if it is inflated...is 65% the standard....if so, why?
My primary influence is my own teachers. My first semester, I decided to offer a straight 90, 80, 70, 60 grading scale, because most of my college professors did. I don't know if that reasoning is sound at all, but it seemed to be what my colleagues were doing as well. At some point before I entered college as a student, educators must have agreed that this was reasonable. I have rarely run across a prof. who requires a 92 for an A, or designates an 86 as an A. The only retrospective cry of FOUL I would make is that my college physics classes graded on a curve and averages were high, so my scores in the low 90s were Bs, and also the exams were just plug-and-chug equations - I didn't realize until grad school that I really didn't understand any physics (in that sense, I didn't deserve a grade as high as B).
My A&P II class last semester would argue that the consistently low test averages indicated that I needed to change something, esp. my grading scale. I argued back that normally my A&P II classes have higher test averages and that I wasn't doing anything to cause the more negative outcome, and that this group just contained less prepared (intelligent, knowledgeable, motivated, whatever) students.
I wish the US colleges would agree to report percentage instead of a letter. A student who earned a 69%, let's call that a 69 instead of a D. That would reduce the subjective judgment a little, wouldn't it? There are foreign colleges where that is what is reported. 


2. "I'd like to see a convincing argument that a college student's grades
should reflect anything other than true success on exams and assignments
that require thinking." I think that was Alice...and I agree..... I liked
your use of "should" and assume you used it deliberately......I don't think
yes, deliberate, a reaction to the perception in my community that a nearby college never gives grades lower than Cs. i have inquired how this is possible, esp. when former students were involved [my most recent anecdote is of a student who failed all exams in my class last spring, took both A&Ps in the summer at the other college, earned As, came back here in the fall in the athletic training program and then flunked out of that. her advisor told her she obviously hadn't learned any A&P]. students constantly beg for extra assignments - they have been taught that doing worksheets that don't challenge them, attending class whether alert or not, and being nice or at least socially acceptable, are worth as much as a high exam score. I shudder to think how they would perform in an emergency room if their entire health care education was this way. 


that they "do" though.....how can we deny that our teaching, test making
and test marking strategies affect the student's grade. Why do I bust my
Affect, yes, but how much? Students need to realize that no one who scrutinized their transcript assumes that each semester was smooth sailing and each teacher they had was the best. I looked over the test question web site that someone posted recently, if you haven't looked at it you should. This is the one explaining the history of the medical board questions and how the style has change, and more importantly, why it has changed. It's a nice job of explaining how some test questions, because of how they are constructed, don't really test a student's knowledge. I've learned some of that on my own, but it's good to see it articulated and confirmed, and that even questions that I write that I thought were sound, maybe they weren't. But I don't see how a prof's. style of teaching can have more than a minor impact - students have to adapt, and the transcript reflects adaptability as well as other things. They have to take initiative - if they are finding me impossible to understand in class, then they need to come and see me for a one-on-one, or they need to rely more on their textbook or other students. When I was at a larger school and saw students move from one A&P prof to the next, repeating the same course, the most common outcome was the same letter grade the second time; if the grade was different, it was not by more than one letter, and surely part of the increase resulted from the fact that this was their second attempt. 


ass to make sure that they "get" osmolarity if my class average should be a
C+ no matter what I do? I still have a hard time reconcilling the two (how


excellent point, and one reason for stubbornly resisting.


can I simultaneously care about how they do and teach like I care, while
trying to maintain a 65% with how I test/mark?). Why do I teach....why do I
have a job....what is my role? Maybe my job is to impart my enthiusiasm for
my subject or convey my approach to understanding and applying difficult
concepts,  or to facilitate a group interaction with the material, to
entertain them? Maybe this is the stuff of a career's worth of inquiry, but
if our job is to entertain and motivate, why oh why are we not given a little training in this area? I liked science and I liked learning, and it never occurred to me to wonder why a professor didn't act like a clown. if I wanted a comedy routine, I could go to a comedy club. 


It does frighten me that marks (too high or too low) can influence
sessional reassignment or the granting of tenure.....I'm starting to wonder
what the alternative should be though, aspecially if student evals are as
worthless as many think. Anyone consider that the remuneration for marking
(or lack thereof) affects grading quality by adjucts? If learning outcomes,
assessment and feedback (as measured by student grades?) are so important
these days, why is it that test making and grading quality and consistency
is not given top priority in our post-secondary instsitutions. Someone with
a salary has the time to do that (maybe I'm wrong here, sorry if I'm being
they have the time only if they think it is a priority. my university's mission seems to be student recruitment, and retention efforts are aimed at socializing students, not at finding out what might be going wrong in the classroom in terms of what students AND profs are doing. i ask colleagues periodically to attend my classes and give me feedback, but they rarely do - they are too busy or don't think it's of any value. 

Dr. Alice Mills
Dept. of Biological Sciences
University of Tennessee at Martin
Martin, TN  38238
(731) 587-7175
(731) 587-7187 (fax)


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