My exams are finally over and besides being exhausted (I couldn't read a line last night, I just went out for coffee with my sister), I realized how tough it is to give grades. We gave everything from a 5 to an 11, which is pretty much the whole scale; it was fun to give 11 but the level of amusement over the rest of the grades did not correspond to the number. It all depends on people's expectations and since I can read this out of their faces and their tone of voice, I had to disappoint several students. Because unfortunately students' expectations are not always related to their level of understanding of the material and their project's quality. This of course brings me closer to the thought of writing a 'how to write a project' guide.
One thing that I keep thinking though, is if I could have done anything differently. Could I have helped them more through the project (I advised them all, with up to three meetings)? Could I have warned them that their project was not much better than a barely pass? And should I have suggested that they improved their design late in the process? The main issue here is that I expect students to work independently. This is a graduate education and I assume that students know how to give themselves a problem, solve it in a creative way and describe what they couldn't solve but how they would have done it in case they hit a wall. I expect students to be able to reason and argue for their design decisions and take the project a little further at the exam. The problem is here, that I expect students to be capable of doing this on their own, I don't expect to have to teach them.
What I do expect, as an advisor, is to guide them through the design process (if they do a design based project contrary to a theory based, which is much harder and rare here at the university); I will give them input and feedback on their material. I will also tell them where their weaknesses are and where their strengths are. And finally, I will give them a fair chance to bring the project to a higher level at the exam, by asking questions that can heighten the level or straighten out misunderstandings.
I think that disappointed students are inevitably something teachers have to deal with. And I hope that I will get a little tougher with tearful eyes and angry students as I get more experienced. However, there are two ways to deal with the problems that exist here at the university with students not working independently in an environment requiring this type of work: one it to just ignore that the university accepts students who are less inapt to work on independent problem solving issues and realize that a lot will never graduate. Another way to deal with this is to provide the means for the students to learn these skills before it becomes necessary for them to know how to do projects, for example by way of introductory courses in project and report writing (non-credit). Unfortunately, I don't think the latter way is going to be carried out any time soon. And in fact my cynical mindset would like to see a third way to deal with the problems: not admitting students who are not capable of thinking independently and writing academic reports. But that option leaves open a set of new problems and challenges that are to long and complex to fit in here.
Posted by Louise at June 25, 2004 03:20 PM