I teach a low level math class at a state college as part of my graduate assistant duties while I’m doing my Master’s. The way this class was pitched to me when I joined was “many of the students who get placed in this class have been deeply traumatized by the education system and we want to introduce them to real mathematics, broken free from the failures of their previous teachers.” I was ecstatic. This has always been the kind of thing I wanted to be involved with once I started teaching, and here I was getting to start with it right out of a Bachelor’s. Absolutely wonderful.
But I slowly start to find out that the mission statement and the actual implementation of the course are so far from each other. We’ll talk about how all the students care about is grades, and how we need to deemphasize the importance of it and focus on the learning, and then we’ll turn right around and use grades as a form of coercion, because “these students won’t do anything unless there’s a grade attached.” Well yeah of course, because we’re the ones making a bigger deal out of the grade than the actual learning, and the students are just following suit. We’re the ones sending that message.
We talk so much about how we want them to think for themselves and not parrot their lecture notes on quizzes, but then we give quizzes that rely on rote memorization and regurgitation.
For every core value we assert in words, we turn around and tell our students the exact opposite in action. We tell them at the beginning of the course that things are going to run differently than any other course they’ve probably taken, and then we just borrow the form of every standard, tired, and broken attempt at math education, make it 3 times as complicated, and then try to pass it off as revolutionary.
I have tried so many times to bring this up, and I get nice platitudes like “oh that’s a really good point” or “thanks for bringing your ideas to the table” or “I hadn’t thought of that. Let’s discuss it with the group later” but nothing is actually materially changing. My boss actually told me one day that I cared too much about my students. How can you possibly tell me that and not feel bad? Like are you actually joking me?
The particular reason why I’m venting this today of all days is that I was sick on our Friday meeting, and was filled in on the contents after the fact. Turns out I was not filled in on one particular thing that was apparently a very heated argument, and found out about it mid lecture this morning from a student the decision affected. And I’m flabbergasted by it.
I spoke to my office mate, and he informed me that there was a misunderstanding in the wording of the quiz, and that we had mistakenly asked a different question than we meant to. And apparently the decision was made to um. Use this quiz as a learning opportunity to drill in what we actually expect for the final? And thus we should give no credit if they answer the question we asked instead of the one we meant to? Um? Hello? In what universe does marking off points for a correct answer on a quiz for inability to mind read correlate to increased motivation?
(To be fair, the situation wasn’t entirely this cut and dry. An argument was made that one word of the problem should have been a hint at what we wanted. I, however, don’t understand this on two fronts: our directions to students on a graded assignment shouldn’t be hidden behind a hint. And additionally, the particular word in question, I don’t think added any additional information anyway. Given the correct answer and the ones the students gave, the hint word applies equally to both, and I honestly don’t see how anyone could say otherwise. (The word was “explain” and both answers were an explanation. Just the more correct one was more verbose). So you know what, I take it back. This is pretty cut and dry bull crap. Pointing to the word explain seems less like a reasonable assertion that the point of the question was clear, and more as a retroactive justification for offloading the effort that would be required to genuinely rectify the situation and prepare the students for the final, onto the students grades instead of our own responsibilities.)
I mean, these students are my people. I have always wanted to reach students broken by the education system and show them the joy of learning again, and it pains me that this class uses the language of my passion and misses the mark so incredibly. And I’m essentially powerless against it because all I’m doing is running someone else’s class for them, to their specifications.
I totally feel you. The way modern ‘education’ destroys interest in maths the way it’s taught is so disheartening. We want to foster curiosity not contempt but forcing testing schedules…
“If I had to design a mechanism for the express purpose of destroying a child’s natural curiosity and love of pattern-making, I couldn’t possibly do as good a job as is currently being done— I simply wouldn’t have the imagination to come up with the kind of senseless, soul- crushing ideas that constitute contemporary mathematics education” -Paul Lockhart
I go a relatively fancy (not compared to American colleges, just compared to my home country) public college and I see pretty much the same thing, just from the side of the students. Courses are so dependent on getting grades rather than learning outcomes that the professors have to explicitly attach a small grade to everything to motivate us to do the work. In courses where the professors don’t do this, nobody bothers doing the work. And even then, if the effort required for the homework is too high compared to the grade, most people will skip it.
I have had some courses which tried to correct for this culture. One of my courses made it mandatory for making attempts at a minimum number of homework problems. Naturally, this led to students trying to find ways to make their “attempts” count. The best course in terms of motivating students to actually learn had a system where they would assign you just 1, relatively complicated homework problem. Then, you could go to a student TA on monday along with 4-5 students to discuss anything you didn’t understand, or to do extra practice problems. I managed to get a lot out of it, but by the 4rth week, I was the only one showing up.
I mean, these students are my people. I have always wanted to reach students broken by the education system and show them the joy of learning again, and it pains me that this class uses the language of my passion and misses the mark so incredibly. And I’m essentially powerless against it because all I’m doing is running someone else’s class for them, to their specifications.
Modern liberal culture really is infuriating. I don’t want to give too many details because I don’t want to dox myself, but my university has been making a big fuss about sustainability by getting rid of disposable cups and whatnot, all the while partnering with fossil fuel companies. Even when talking about radical change, there is only so far liberals can go in reality.
A few of the professors in other departments have some pretty interesting technique as far as grading goes, and they’re seeing a good deal of success. There’s also a growing body of research on alternative practices and the effects on student engagement, and the results outperform traditional grading in pretty much every way relevant to student learning in every study. I’m not saying we gotta immediately do something radical, but what I’m saying is we’re trying to pretend like we’re being radical, while not really making even the slightest push in the right direction. Like even just a little bit of trying something new in order to figure out what works would be wonderful. We don’t have to immediately figure it out. But what we can do is draw from other courses that had success and try to work the principals into our course. However, we’re just stuck in this nightmarish cycle of underperforming in some aspect and pinning it on the students, instead of doing what’s on our product label and making an attempt to free them from the same sort of BS they’ve had to deal with in other classes.
Nothing comes immediately, but it’s like we’re not even trying.
Thanks for the response. I am curious about the other grading techniques you have mentioned. If it is not a bother could you explain them?
Courses are so dependent on getting grades rather than learning outcomes that the professors have to explicitly attach a small grade to everything to motivate us to do the work. In courses where the professors don’t do this, nobody bothers doing the work. And even then, if the effort required for the homework is too high compared to the grade, most people will skip it.
As a USian high schooler, this reads very true. I like to learn, but school takes all the fun out of it. So often I could put in more work and have more fun and learn something, but I’m too tired from all the stuff that’s actually required to do it. Or, when AP tests expect you to read the textbook, almost everyone doesn’t do it, because it’s a lot more effort with little gain for the short term grade. My Spanish teacher wants us to learn how we want to or whatever, and I like to do it, just on my own time. I prefer that period to have a bit of a break from school. I learn more over the summer.
I teach a low level math class at a state college as part of my graduate assistant duties while I’m doing my Master’s.
I imagine that this is the problem. I’m not going to hate on all state colleges, but many of them are more concerned about the amount of tuition than they are in the education of the future generation. I applaud your drive and wish every teacher was like this. But the underfunded education system wins again.
