Professional dilemmas

Mike Cole (mcole who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Mon, 28 Dec 1998 09:37:13 -0800 (PST)

Dear XMCA-ites--

It seems from the relatively empty mail queue this morning that people have
been able to put aside the discomfort engendered by having to do the nasty work of
students for whom we like to think of ourselves as benefactors. The population of my home
having shrunk to only 200% its normal size, I might just be able to squeeze out a message.
The recent discusssion have certainly resonated with me. I have just completed teaching a
senior seminar in human development that is designed to be integrative. The integration was
supposed to take place along several lines. They re-read the textbook in child development that
my wife and I are revising, they worked on an individual or small group project that had some
special significance for them. Together in class we usually spent our time discussing principles
and phenomena of development and generating a quiz question which they answered at the end
of class and I graded. I encountered students who were masters at identifying which parts of texts
were worthwhile based on how likely they thought it would be that it would serve as the source
of a multiple choice question, but much less savvy about how to make sense of the process of
development. I worry about how little the students learned from me but am grateful for what I
could learn from them.
Re grading. I use a double criterion. I grade according to criteria that I have developed
over a long period of time that include knowledge of basic content, an ability to criticize that
content, and an ability to generate examples from their own experience. It turns out that
at the end of the quarter, the highest average grade was about a 90. So on my "absolute
criteria" curve, there would be one A- and some B's and a goodly number of C's. But
I reverted to the local norms of my institution for senior classes, so that class grade average
was more like a B/B+. Grade inflation?
In a course which I occasionally get to teach where students are allowed to combine
theory and practice in a serious way, my absolute curve has been a good deal higher. So many
students gain a sense of themselves as thinkers and actors that they surprise themselves with their
talent. I don't lower grades to fit the norm. Grade inflation?
Its a real dilemma. You can't win for losing.
The bell curve also plays a large and powerful role in revisions of our text, where the
attempt to partial nature and nurture while protesting that they are mutually constituted gains
strength with every passing year. Jerome Kagan's new book, *Three seductive ideas* has an
interesting critique of the application of the curve to IQ test scores for those who are interested.

More to come
mike