At 11:02 PM 1/26/98 -0500, Michael wrote:
>The academy seems unable - or unwilling - to evaluate people on
>other than objective criteria.
Well, most organizations only evaluate on objective criteria---that's all
that's defensible. The problem in the academic setting---and especially in
design schools---is that the faculty has typically had the freedom to
evaluate the student's work on less-than-objective criteria.
In the traditional upper-level lecture class, a student might write papers
or an essay exam. The professor grades them---how? How do you objectively
(meaning "assign a number to it") measure whether the student covered the
material adequately? How many times have you cut a student some slack
because they tried hard and had perfect attendence? Do you assign a grade to
those qualities?
Some professors do, but many seem to prefer the fudge factor---it gives them
some room to move around. I'm not saying that's not right, but we're asked
to put a lot of trust in the professors' professional judgement. Sometimes
that trust is abused. Sometimes the students are doing the abusing!
Mark
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Bill Verity - 814-865-4758 Fax: 814-863-7049
215A Computer Building - Center for Academic Computing, Penn State University
At the office - on my Mac, of course ;-)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 15:51:58 -0500
From: "L-Soft list server at LISTS.PSU.EDU (1.8e)"
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Subject: File: "DESIGN-L LOG9802"
To: John Young <jya@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
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>The academy seems unable - or unwilling - to evaluate people on
>other than objective criteria.
Well, most organizations only evaluate on objective criteria---that's all
that's defensible. The problem in the academic setting---and especially in
design schools---is that the faculty has typically had the freedom to
evaluate the student's work on less-than-objective criteria.
In the traditional upper-level lecture class, a student might write papers
or an essay exam. The professor grades them---how? How do you objectively
(meaning "assign a number to it") measure whether the student covered the
material adequately? How many times have you cut a student some slack
because they tried hard and had perfect attendence? Do you assign a grade to
those qualities?
Some professors do, but many seem to prefer the fudge factor---it gives them
some room to move around. I'm not saying that's not right, but we're asked
to put a lot of trust in the professors' professional judgement. Sometimes
that trust is abused. Sometimes the students are doing the abusing!
Mark
--
--
Bill Verity - 814-865-4758 Fax: 814-863-7049
215A Computer Building - Center for Academic Computing, Penn State University
At the office - on my Mac, of course ;-)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 15:51:58 -0500
From: "L-Soft list server at LISTS.PSU.EDU (1.8e)"
<LISTSERV@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: File: "DESIGN-L LOG9802"
To: John Young <jya@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
X-ELNK-AV: 0