October 6 - Discussion Topics

Ch 11

• McKeachie states that grading on a curve is educationally dysfunctional. If so, then why do a majority of professors grade on a curve?

• The author says that he will write a letter stating the reason for the grade if the student needs a higher grade for probation or getting into a good school. Would you do the same because it seems like if you did it for one student you would have to do it for every student?

• McKeachie cites Ames, Maehr, and Midgley's recommendations on student motivation, #5 states the instructor should focus on individual improvement rather than on comparisons with others. Is this objectively possible?

• Is it fair to bump a student up to the next grade when they are on the border between grades and have shown good progress during the semester?

  • When assigning final grades, is there room for giving students a slightly higher grade, such as an A- rather than a B+, if you know they were motivated or improved greatly over the course of the semester? Would this be under the "class participation" that seems kind of vague?

• Is contract grading the same as having a syllabus as a contract? And if not, has anyone ever seen this system used?

• Do most universities or departments have polices about criteria grading versus curve grading?

• Do you think that it would be more effective to discard the A-F grading system and to take a more quantitative approach(0-100%), having each course grade with a direct score for ease of comparision?

• Will offering student‚s choices in their assignments foster motivation or procrastination? For example, requiring two papers over the course of the term but giving them three possible times to turn them in.

• What would be a good strategy for a first time teacher to use to access the reliability and validity of his or her testing materials?

• Is it really so bad to take points away from students for things like tardiness, late papers, etc.? If you make it a separate grading category, as McKeachie recommends, how do you integrate it into the final grade?

Ch 12

• McKeachie suggest several times, to allow students to have some sort of control over the learning environment. I like this and can see how it would lead to student investment. Does anyone have any suggestions of examples of incorporating this idea into an intro course?

  • Ch 12: Giving a student choices motivates them to take charge of their learning, but could there be too much choice?

• Is it possible to spent to much time attempting to motivate students and not enough time teaching the topic? How much of a student's motivation is really our responsiblity as a professor?

• McKeachie seems overly optimistic about the ability to motivate all of your students to enjoy the material and to succeed in learning it. This seems unrealistic to me; at what point do you need to stop trying and to just accept the fact that not all students will be motivated?

• Chapter 12: McKeachie talks about motivation and students obsession with grades. How do you "realistically" steer away from grade obsession? Frankly, it seems everything (grad school, jobs) is based on grades.

• How important is it that the teacher motivates the student? In my opinion, if they are not motivated to begin with, you will be spending most of the time trying to motivate them instead of teaching the ones that are already good to go. Shouldn't it be the students job to be motivated, not ours to make them so?

• Our author mentions that facilitating social motivation can be beneficial in a classroom setting. From your own personal experiences, do you feel that you gained more from classes where you got to know your fellow students, formed study groups, worked as pairs, or engaged in out of class assignments with each other? What were some of the advantages and disadvantages for learning in socially motivating classes?

• The author says, "foster students' intrinsic motivation to attend class by being well prepared, making lectures and discussions interesting, ...". Is this really possible?

• Chapter 12: Should you drop test items that were missed by alot of students? How many is alot?

• I have overheard conversations where students are perfectly content to get C's. It seems that a lot of the students really are just trying to get the diploma, and aren't motivated to excel or learn. Is there any way to reach them?