Re: grades, pass/fail etc.

[John Clement <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>]

I would assume that the study that is mentioned in the article is done at a
conventional school where students are graded.  Just the particular topic
studied had improved results.  How much non graded material could be
optimally used is completely unanswered.  Whether or not grading could be
eliminated completely and result in higher gain within a course is also
unknown.

One of the higher gain physics curricula Hake's "Socratic Dialog Labs" (
http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/ ) uses no grading during the labs.
Papers are marked, but not graded.  To get it right students must come back
and repeat the labs.  At the end of this process they are given a test on
the labs.  Ultimately the whip is applied at the end of the process, but not
during the learning process.

I doubt that just grades vs no grades is the significant factor in Hake's
pedagogy.  The (inter)active engagement (IE) along with a researched
pedagogy probably has much more effect than any effect due to grading
policy.  I submit that using good researched active pedagogy will swamp any
small gains due to grading policies, but the grading policy is certainly
something to be considered.

Similar to the effect of active engagement is the role of student
involvement in the problem solving process.  The very act of feeding
students a specific method of solving a problem is probably going to produce
shallow non transferable learning.  Even watching a teacher thinking out
loud does not substitute for doing one's own thinking.  IE has been shown to
improve conceptual understanding.  Using similar techniques to teach problem
solving should produce more expert like behavior.  This has been attacked
successfully by the PER group at UMass Amherst (
http://umperg.physics.umass.edu/writings/publist ) and by the Hellers (
http://www.physics.umn.edu/groups/physed/Research/CGPS/CGPSintro.htm ) and
of course by Van Heuvelin with his ALPS worksheets.  These groups all
introduce a flexible problem solving method that involves metacognition and
is not broken down into simple small steps aimed at one problem.  Notice
that this is consistent with first research study cited by Alfie Kohn
http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=03Kohn.h22 in Ed. Week.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> James Mackey wrote:
> > Somehow I don't think that saying, "We're a
> > caring interested group of teachers who are no longer going to issue any
> > grades so that students can concentrate on learning instead of grades"
> > is going to achieve any goals except anarchy.
>
> Where is that coming from????
>
> I don't think anybody has suggested we are "no longer
> going to issue ANY grades".
>
> There's a proposal on the table to permit pass/fail
> grading of a limited number of out-of-major electives
> at the college level.  That's a far cry from no grades
> at all.
>
> Let's not waste time setting up and knocking down
> straw-men.  Extremism and exaggeration are not helpful.