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On 07/13/2012 09:18 PM, Hodges, Laurent [PHYSA] wrote:
When teaching large physics courses I would post on my course web
site a "Top Ten" list of the highest scores after every exam, using
real names. Some other faculty felt this was dangerous, but that
didn't stop me. If any administrator had ever complained I would
have said I would stop when the football team quit naming their
quarterback or other star player.
I strongly suspect the athletic department obtains signed releases
before sending out the information.
We are talking about some picky details here, because in a class
(or sport) that involves a lot of participation, everybody in the
class already knows who's been pulling their weight and who hasn't.
Still, one could semi-reasonably draw the line at (a) publicizing
the information /outside/ of class, and (b) presenting it as the
official teacher's opinion, as opposed to random peers' opinions.
I'm not saying don't do it ... just that it might be polite to ask
first. The ones who opt out will be the ones who wouldn't have
made the top-ten list anyway.
=====================
On the other hand, I am a little bit leery of stirring up too much
competition /within/ the class. The analogy to the football team
is clear: I don't care whether you are good enough to beat all
the other would-be quarterbacks in the school; I care whether
you are good enough to beat the opposing team!
In particular, if there is another guy who is almost as good as
you, I want you to help him, not hobble him. That makes you less
of a standout within the school, but it strengthens the school
as a whole.
There's a lot more that could be said about this. This is super-
important. There are some obvious things to do and some obvious
mistakes to avoid, but in between there are lots of tricky decisions
and lots of unintended consequences. Broadly stated, how do you
encourage people to be good team players? How do you channel their
competitive impulses into /constructive/ directions? How do you
reward team members for their contributions? This is more ethics
and economics and applied psychology than physics, but it is really
really important. The existence of old, large organizations means
that /some/ people have figured out /some/ parts of the problem,
but other parts remain profoundly unsolved.
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