{"id":289,"date":"2012-07-16T16:06:23","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T21:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/?p=289"},"modified":"2012-07-16T16:07:33","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T21:07:33","slug":"grades-teaching-and-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/2012\/07\/16\/grades-teaching-and-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Grades, Teaching and Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0This post differs from most of my posts here.\u00a0 The quotes below are from\u00a0a recent article from the\u00a0<em>Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em> on the topic of grading and the college student.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Consider a car&#8217;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\u2014if it is what you want, you try to maintain it; if not, you make appropriate adjustments. That is analogous to how students are <em>supposed<\/em> to use, and benefit from, whatever it is that their grades are telling them.&#8221; [Italics in original]<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Since grades have only instrumental value\u2014rather than any intrinsic value\u2014they 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&#8217;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Learning is never directly caused by anything that a professor does. It happens as a result of the student&#8217;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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&#8217;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Author: Ahmed Afzaal, <a href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/article\/GradingIts-Discontents\/132789\/\">http:\/\/chronicle.com\/article\/GradingIts-Discontents\/132789\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0This post differs from most of my posts here.\u00a0 The quotes below are from\u00a0a recent article from the\u00a0Chronicle of Higher Education on the topic of grading and the college student. &#8220;Consider a car&#8217;s speedometer. It is a tool that performs &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/2012\/07\/16\/grades-teaching-and-learning\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learning","category-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions\/292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}