Teaching
This has been my first semester teaching. I have learned a lot. Here is the main thing I learned: there are students who do poor work, and I will be giving them C’s. This is painful.
When I planned my class, I included a lot of interactive activities, student-directed learning, and student presentations. In my mind, I was imagining that only A students would populate my class. It would be a good time. We would happily discuss scientific issues and explore the relevant scientific issues. I would use the class to help develop new research ideas.
I have several very good students. However, I also ended up with a sub-population of weak students in my class. Some of these students had been warned that they were not making sufficient academic progress, and needed to improve their grades. My class did not have any formal prerequisites, and it must have looked relatively fun and easy. I was a new professor; maybe the class seemed exciting. So they signed up, but they could not do the work… at least, not at an A or B level. By the time I figured out the extent of the problem, it was too late to screen them out or prevent them from registering.
All semester, several of the weaker students have been asking for extra credit opportunities, make-up assignments, grade forgiveness, etc. The students who were doing poorly have generally improved, but not to the B level. Meanwhile, the quality of class presentations and discussions have been watered down by the weaker performers, to the detriment of the whole class. My idea of using the class to develop research project ideas now looks somewhat naive.
There are now only a few weeks of classes left in the semester. I have kept the students regularly updated on their grades. Some of them may not graduate this semester, because their grade in my class will bring them below the minimum GPA. I am steeling myself now against any anticipated begging, pleading, and complaints that the grade I am giving them will bring shame on them and their family. Next year I will be far more careful about who is allowed to register for my class. But for this year, I am trying to get used to my role as a Tough Professor.
Remember that they earned those grades, you aren’t “giving” them.
Also, what’s so bad about a C? I know the students will complain, but C is supposed to be average, right? If all of your students got As and Bs, you’d be saying that your course was too easy. It does suck, though, that you couldn’t have the discussions that you envisioned.
Comment by ecogeofemme — November 11, 2008 @ 12:07 am
This is a graduate class, so anything below a B is pretty darn bad, and a C- basically means “failing.”
Comment by drshellie — November 11, 2008 @ 7:05 pm
ecogeofemme beat me to it….always keep in your head that they are earning the grades. Repeat that to them, and often.
I have also found this crazy idea of extra credit driving me crazy. Why in the heck should I give extra credit if they do not even do the assigned work. Dang those no child left behind policies that foster this attitude in our students.
Comment by Katie — November 11, 2008 @ 10:42 pm
What egf said. What happened to the good old days when the class grade distribution was fudged so that the mean grade was a 75?
Comment by Lab Lemming — November 11, 2008 @ 10:55 pm
Apart from having to earn a “Pass” grade, students should be given extra credit when they show extra work. Thats it. I toughed up quickly when I had a student crying in my office because his parents would be taking his car away from him if he failed my course. This at the end of the semester, from someone who did not even deliver any of the assignements. My inner self was longing for the good old days when I could have kicked him out of my office, instead of handing him a kleenex and wasting any more of my time.
Comment by Seasaltblues — November 13, 2008 @ 6:01 pm