No shock here. I might whip out this article the next time a student comes to my office hours insisting that they’re entitled to a “B” just for showing up and doing their homework. Thanks to Xiao for sharing it.
February 23, 2009 by gradland
No shock here. I might whip out this article the next time a student comes to my office hours insisting that they’re entitled to a “B” just for showing up and doing their homework. Thanks to Xiao for sharing it.
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It’s interesting that students from different cultures have very different mentalities when it comes to grades. Coming from an Asian culture, I grew up never taking grades for granted, and I went through high school knowing that effort, while helpful, did not guarantee good grades. In a way, the writing class we teach is a way to tell students: look, high school is very different. In college, doing what you are supposed to do can only get a C, and putting in a lot of effort does not necessarily results in good grades. But what is frustrating for me is the fact that many lower division elective courses (social issues, etc.) still facilitate students to have the “effort gets you good grades” kind of mentality because honestly, these courses are easy. That is why sometimes you have students who come to you and ask: “I got an A on a philosophy paper, why did you give me a C+ in this class?” Well…
Yeah, a lot of the lower division courses don’t help–especially when a lot of them seem to be asking the students to write personal narrative-style essays, which is EXACTLY what I’m trying to get them NOT to do.