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Re: grades, pass/fail etc.



I'm teaching a thermodynamics course with 16 juniors and seniors. They are mostly pretty bright, but not hard workers and not real
excited about the subject. (Alas, that last sentence might be typical of all the courses I teach.)

My syllabus says the final grade will be determined by a midterm (1/3) , a final (1/3), and lab reports (1/3). We have been in
session for 5 weeks. After 3 weeks it was clear the students weren't reading the text and certainly weren't doing any of the
problems in the text even though I was suggesting which problems would be good ones to do.

I don't have a grader, and I am teaching an overload, so I didn't want to assign problems I would have to grade. One day I walked
into class and I said, "I am dismayed it seems most of you aren't reading the book and I don't think you are solving the problems
I've suggested. Therefore, I am going to start assigning problems and having you hand them in." I made the first problem
assignment, and for two weeks I have been having them turn in problems about every two days. I have been posting the answers and
sometimes talk about a specific problem in class. They are doing the problems and also are coming to see me to get help with the
problems. This is exactly how it should be.

However... I haven't graded any problems and I never did tell them the problems would (or would not) count as part of the grade.
Last Wednesday, one of the least shy students came to my office and asked if I was going to hand back any graded problems sets soon.
I said I didn't know. He then asked how the problems were going to count in the grade. I said I wasn't sure they would count,
except working problems helps them learn the subject and it also helps assure they pass the exams. He asked why they should bother
doing the problems if they aren't going to be graded and aren't going to count in the grade. I said I just told him why. He then
asked why I started assigning them and collecting them. I said I was assigning and collecting problems to pace them through the
material.

On Friday, when the next problem set was due, only half the class turned them in. The next time I wonder if anyone will turn in any
problems. So this has been an interesting experiment on student motivation. I hate to say it, but the students I teach are totally
motivated by the grade. If the course were pass/fail, and they needed what would traditionally be a C- grade to pass, then they
would all work at the C- level. This is not a new revelation to me; its been the way for years, but this little experiment helps
prove the point.

Students are also totally unrealistic about what it takes to learn the material. If there is just a midterm and final, they won't
do anything but come to class until a few days before the exam, and they think they can review/learn/cram it all in just a couple
days. The exception to this would be the foreign students who went through most of their training with just midterms and finals, or
sometimes just a final.

Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Chair of Sciences
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu