Thanks for the refs, Kevin -- I was aware of Coles, but not the rest, this
is a good harvest!
>
> I have to say, though I certainly understand that you have a more
> thoughtful process, that I got a pop media image in my head of flashing
> flood lights and someone intoning "you are the Weakest Link...goodbye"
> when reading about the "expulsion" process. I have to admit, that is
> pretty high stakes and, I'd say for a student, pretty authentic.
That course intimidated me because of all the laying-oneself-on-the-line
that it required of everyone. This was pre-"Weakest Link" days, BTW, or I
might have had to revise my self-concept too much to implement this
expulsion move in the syllabus. ;) I had taught the course without it,
Kevin, and it was too wimpy. In the real world there are real
consequences for letting your mates down, and don't they know that
already! And the real world doesn't get suspended at the classroom door.
I wanted them to have the experience in an environment (1) where
there was metadiscourse about the process and (2) where the consequences
were primarily in terms of grades, but with intimations of the other
valuable things that can and do get lost when groups don't work. Plenty
scary, but that's the only way to learn some things.
I guess in mitigation of the horrors of my Weakest Link strategy, I would
like to note that there was never a Weakest Link who came to the expulsion
meeting not knowing that they had already lost several rounds. I required
the expulsion meeting so that people could do the (potentially) final
rounds with everyone there! I am happy to report that the consensus
in some really notable circumstances was to reorganize, not to expel,
which was just the thing that none could have imagined before the meeting.
(looks like it passed the test for consensus as opposed to compromise)
Anybody else with a story? I love stories.
--Alena
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Oct 10 2001 - 15:49:08 PDT