Historia et Memoria

“Devotion to the subject is the one factor which inspires both sound learning and sound teaching.  If one is really keen on a discipline, one’s enthusiasm will usually communicate itself to the students.  Even if they do not share it (perhaps because they will find the subject itself dull and repellent) they will at least become aware of the wider possibilities of intellectual adventure.” Gilbert Highet. The Immortal Profession. New York, 1976. 

Gilbert Highet taught classics at Oxford and Columbia for forty years during the mid-twentieth century.  Based upon his experience as a professor, this book contains his wisdom on teaching and learning.  This quote demonstrates the significant role that the teacher’s passion for the subject plays in the classroom.  Professors must model devotion to their discipline for their students.  Notice, the professor does not direct his or her devotion primarily to the student but the subject.

 This post differs from most of my posts here.  The quotes below are from a recent article from the Chronicle of Higher Education on the topic of grading and the college student.

“Consider a car’s speedometer. It is a tool that performs two interrelated functions: (1) It measures speed, and (2) it communicates that information to the driver. In a somewhat similar way, grading is a tool that also performs two interrelated functions: (1) It assesses academic performance, and (2) it communicates that information to the student. When driving, you glance at the speedometer to determine the speed of the vehicle—if it is what you want, you try to maintain it; if not, you make appropriate adjustments. That is analogous to how students are supposed to use, and benefit from, whatever it is that their grades are telling them.” [Italics in original]

“Since grades have only instrumental value—rather than any intrinsic value—they must be treated as only means to some end, and never as ends in themselves. I tell my students: If your primary goal in college is to receive good grades, you will probably view the required work as an onerous obstacle and you’re not likely to feel very motivated to do the work. But you are most likely to receive good grades when you are so focused on learning that grades have ceased to matter.”

“Learning is never directly caused by anything that a professor does. It happens as a result of the student’s own activities (reading, thinking, writing, etc.), while the professor can only facilitate that process. Since the responsibility for learning lies with the student, so does the burden of demonstrating that he or she has actually achieved that learning.”

“I try to help my students realize that learning is its own reward. No amount of accolades, trophies, diplomas, and money can equal the worth of one’s actual learning. It is impossible to reduce the full richness or value of a genuine learning experience to something as bland as a letter grade.”

Author: Ahmed Afzaal, http://chronicle.com/article/GradingIts-Discontents/132789/