Re: [Phys-L] grades (was: no more SAT optional essay and subject tests)

[Todd Pedlar <pedlto01@luther.edu>]

On Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 10:54 PM stefan jeglinski <jeglin@4pi.com> wrote:

> Thanks JD this is very useful.
>
> <snip>
>
> How do we start with this chicken and egg – do we attack the testing, or
> the emphasis on grades? Which begets which?
Unfortunately the emphasis on grades starts in high school (if not earlier)
where in many places the AVERAGE GPA  (not talking any stupid sort of
"weighted GPA" here, but straight up GPA) for all students is well north of
3.5.  I’ve seen many students arrive as freshmen carrying a 3.4 or 3.5 GPA
from a school where I know they do not weight grades and who are in the
35th or 40th percentile.  This is not healthy. When students can submit
their work, and resubmit their work and re-resubmit their work to get their
grade on an assignment or exam up to the A level, all that matters is an A,
because to them, anything else is failure.  They think they are achieving
at an A level, but in many cases they are not.

When we receive these students at the college level it’s nearly impossible
to disavow them of the expectations they arrive with.  Hence, when they are
held to actual standards, they gravitate toward the disciplines they can
continue to get A’s in. Sadly the number of students I encounter who, upon
receiving a B or B+, think they aren’t cut out for physics or engineering
(even though they enjoy the subject matter) is frighteningly high.  We can
try to talk such students into sticking it out but unfortunately they have
been acclimated to a wicked system that suppresses their enthusiasm for the
subject and drives them to choose their path forward by inappropriate
criteria.

Frustrated and annoyed,

Todd

-- 
Todd K. Pedlar
Professor of Physics and Physics Department Head
Luther College, Decorah, IA
pedlto01@luther.edu
(563) 387-1628
*Learner | Context | Strategic | Individualization | Achiever*
-- 
Todd K. Pedlar
Professor of Physics and Physics Department Head
Luther College, Decorah, IA
pedlto01@luther.edu
(563) 387-1628
*Learner | Context | Strategic | Individualization | Achiever*