Learning Matters

“Is it still possible for me to get a passing grade?” or “What do I have to do to get and A in your class?”; you, like me, have probably heard these questions more than once in the last few weeks. I post all my grades on Moodle so there is really no need to ask me grade questions, but there are always a handful of students eager to enter the hypothetical “what if I hand in all late assignments, get a 95% on the final, and complete all extra credit”. I must admit that I indulge these students. I invite them to sit down with me in my office and we go over every detail of their grade, enter reasonable and unreasonable estimates for the next few assignments and tests, and talk about what has to happen for them to earn that wished-for grade, whether it is a C or an A. Sometimes I try to talk about the bigger picture, especially if the student is one of my advisees. We talk about career aspirations, the realistic (im)possibility of being accepted to medical school with C’s in all biology and chemistry classes, repeating classes, taking and extra semester or year to finish college, and occasionally the conversation touches on learning. I may ask something like “do you feel like you have gained mastery of the material in the class?”, or “do you think you could use the knowledge in a different class or to solve a real-world problem?”, but those times are rare. What can we do to take the focus off grades and move it onto knowledge generation and learning? In her blog post Five Ways to Get Students Thinking about Learning, Not Grades, Maryellen Weimer lists a handful of thoughts on the topic. I particularly like the last point where she gives an example of an eye-opening question she once asked a student:

“5. Change the conversation – Talk “learning” with students. I once had this exchange with a student. ‘So, you’re taking political science? Tell me what you’re learning in the course.’ To which the student replied, ‘Nothing.’ ‘Really?’ I asked incredulously. ‘And what’s going to happen when you’re interviewing for the job of your dreams and the interviewer says, ‘Gee, I see you took a poly sci course. That’s such an interesting field. Tell me what you learned in that course?’’ I loved how the student’s eyes widened.”

She also admits that we do need grades as performance measures - she simply wishes to nudge the conversation to focus more on learning. What is your take on grades versus learning? More importantly, what do you do to help students think about their own learning processes?