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Should Grades Consider Student Effort? | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
[new] Student 's Effort (none / 0) (#2)
by kuttushlambu on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 08:35:16 AM PDT

I think students' effort should be taken into consideration, especially if the students are taking those Math classes as part of requirements and have very little intuitive idea about what Math is all about. For example, I recently gave a quiz where students were required to determine whether or not a function is odde, even or neither using the definition. It is a Freshmen Precalculus class where students are taking the course for gen.ed. requirement. The students studied hard (as they were coming to my office to ask questions). During the quiz, they all found what f(-x) was and -f(x) was. But then to answer the question by comparing f(-x) with -f(x) and f(x) - they were failing there. So, shall I penalize them heavily because they were not Math students, all these Mathematical concepts were alien to them and thus they were failing to connect all the dots? Or shall I grade their effort also? I graded it based on their effort - they got atleat some credit. Though of course I know that outside the US, students are graded much more strictly and stringently. That is why we often hear that the US students are doing bad in Math, compared to other countries, because of the way we grade and teach and etc. But, then that would be an entirely different topic to discuss about.



Should Grades Consider Student Effort? | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
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