If you have a student who never turns in homework, never comes to class, but takes the exam at the end and gets 100%, what grade should they get?
If you have a student who turns in all the homework, comes to every class, sits in the front row and pays rapt attention and fails the exam at the end, what grade should they get?
This is a very difficult question to answer considering I've been on both sides. However, I think that the person who doesn't turn in homework and doesn't come to class should get a failing grade. Where the person who pays attention and fails the final exam should get a B or C.
My reasoning behind giving the person who doesn't do homework a failing grade is because they haven't given enough effort to earn an A or any other passing grade. Although they clearly already know the material since they aced the final exam they did not give any effort in regards to coming to class or turning in homework. If they already knew how to do the skill then doing the homework would not be a difficult thing for them to do, and they could have learned something new by attending class.
The student who paid attention and gave it their full potential/effort should get a B or C. They should get this grade because they have done everything in their power to try and learn the skill and information. They have showed up to class, paid attention, turned in the homework, but they couldn't pass the test. Perhaps they know the information but are not very good at taking tests, so they failed the test. There are many different reasons for people to not do well on tests, but I know from personal experience that if you had a bad day or something traumatic happened, that can severely affect how you do on a test or another form of evaluation, even if you do know the information.
But, isn't the point of a class to learn the content? Getting 100% on the final demonstrates knowledge of content. Failing the final demonstrates lack of knowledge of content.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that is the case with some people. However, I think that many people do not do well on tests due to test anxiety. I have been in this position before. If I overthink the importance of a test, I can stress myself out to the point where even though I know the content, I just can't "find it" in my brain. I think that one way to help people with test anxiety would be to have some sort of optional oral exam where you could explain out loud your ideas/answers to questions. Obviously this method wouldn't be ideal for everyone, but I think it could be beneficial to some, especially those with some sort of learning disability.
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