Get a grip on grades
The Traveler Editorial Board
Issue date: 11/19/08 Section: Opinion
For students who have grown up equating recognition with genuine accomplishment, grades assume an importance some teachers find bewildering. These students argue with their professors over nitpicky points. They pitch fits to their classmates when they exert earnest effort on an assignment, but unwittingly perform "B" or "C" work - and receive the grades they deserve. They agonize over the blights on their transcripts and might even internally debate the ethics of a bit of discreetly applied whiteout.
But for professors who have grown up equating "C" with "acceptable," grades lack the significance their students see as self-evident. These professors recognize the motivational worth of a grading system, but see little direct correlation with grades earned and knowledge obtained. They want their students to realize the value of honest assessment and measurable growth, and fail to see how the consequences of a poor grade extend beyond an initial sting and the subsequent incentive to perform better. They assume graduate school admissions officers will grasp the obvious educational merits of the classes they teach and so excuse their students' less-than-perfect grades on the basis of those merits.
Differences in upbringing could be to blame for the professor-student disconnect over grades, according to psychological research.
This generation of students interprets grades according to cultural standards aimed to ensure high self-esteem, whereas previous generations interpreted grades according to cultural standards aimed to measure competence.
Students whose parents adopted the self-esteem-oriented approach to parenting are used to receiving hyperbolic praise and to commanding focused attention. They have also been trained to think of themselves as "great."
Teens of today are likelier than those in the 1970s to claim they are "A" students with high IQs - even though research shows that students today do less homework than their 1970s counterparts did, according to a Nov. 12 Yahoo! News article.
But for professors who have grown up equating "C" with "acceptable," grades lack the significance their students see as self-evident. These professors recognize the motivational worth of a grading system, but see little direct correlation with grades earned and knowledge obtained. They want their students to realize the value of honest assessment and measurable growth, and fail to see how the consequences of a poor grade extend beyond an initial sting and the subsequent incentive to perform better. They assume graduate school admissions officers will grasp the obvious educational merits of the classes they teach and so excuse their students' less-than-perfect grades on the basis of those merits.
Differences in upbringing could be to blame for the professor-student disconnect over grades, according to psychological research.
This generation of students interprets grades according to cultural standards aimed to ensure high self-esteem, whereas previous generations interpreted grades according to cultural standards aimed to measure competence.
Students whose parents adopted the self-esteem-oriented approach to parenting are used to receiving hyperbolic praise and to commanding focused attention. They have also been trained to think of themselves as "great."
Teens of today are likelier than those in the 1970s to claim they are "A" students with high IQs - even though research shows that students today do less homework than their 1970s counterparts did, according to a Nov. 12 Yahoo! News article.
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