tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89385203526159573282024-02-06T23:55:58.207-05:00Neuroscience avoutNeuroscience avoutkhakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-43226562299812102352019-08-20T15:03:00.000-04:002019-08-22T16:40:07.347-04:00Specification ungrading<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This is a third post about my adventures in alternative grading (here are the links <a href="https://khakhalin.blogspot.com/2019/04/mastery-specification-grading-and-why.html">to the first</a>, and <a href="https://khakhalin.blogspot.com/2019/06/specification-grading-followup.html">the second</a> posts in the series).</div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"><br /></span>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Briefly: after reflecting on my</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Mastery</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> grading” saga last semester, I decided to once again change everything in my</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-quot"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-quot">"Intro</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> to Neurobiology” class. This time around, I’ll try a revolutionary yet controversial</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Ungrading”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> approach, toned down using a hybrid</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Specification”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> scheme. I am pretty excited for this experiment, as I feel that it may be uniquely suited for teaching intro classes in particular. If this sounds interesting, read along!</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">First of all, why changing the grading system again? See, I kind of enjoyed my experience with mastery grading last semester, but it made me realize several things. One: it was really hard on my time, and I don’t think it is sustainable in the long-term, just because weekly verbal exams with several students, even if very short, are a huge time commitment. Second: as we spent all office hours talking about science, we had no time left to talk about more human, and thus potentially more important things, such as life, college, careers, art, courses, learning strategies etc. The existential component was gone, and it is a shame, especially for an introductory course, that is mostly taken by first-years. </span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">But the most important concern, is that, based on student evaluations, as well as some anecdotal evidence, students didn’t enjoy the class as much, compared to its previous renditions. In fact, it is the first time in history that my course appreciation rating tanked slightly below 4.0 on a 5-point scale</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(p=0.03,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> compared to my typical performance of about 4.5). This numerical analysis is, of course, all sorts of problematic</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(I</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> hope to write a separate, referenced post on this topic), but it is still curious. Students learned a ton more than in any of my previous classes; and not by a bit, but something like 3-4 times more</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(see</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> my previous analyses). Moreover, at least nominally, in an abstract, cerebral way, they knew that they learned a ton, as I kept reporting back to them in class. They also unambiguously reported lower levels of anxiety. And still, they liked the class significantly less</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(both</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> in the statistical, and in the IRL sense of this word). Weird!</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">There are several ways to look at it, philosophically. One can of course say that it is more important to be a good professor than students’ favorite professor [<a href="https://medium.com/bucknell-hci/what-i-want-you-to-know-about-me-as-your-professor-58c9c2e91e33">1</a>]. </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">One could also argue that I should have done a better job pitching the class to the students. Or that we can just ignore these ratings, as first-years, taking their first course in the discipline, don’t have a good reference point for judging anything. Or we can go full groachy and complain that students’ goals are no longer about education, as they don’t want to walk uphill both ways. But regardless of whether anything of it is true, the fact is that I worked more, students learned better, and yet they were about 10% less happy</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(4.5</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> to 4.0), on average, than in all previous years. And I don’t like it. Because arguably, the main goal of an intro course is not to prep students for the second-year sequence, but to give them a taste of, and an appreciation for science. Here, the emotional goal, the enjoyment of the process, may be more important than objective learning. And if this is true, then having lower student appreciation is actually worrisome. Not to mention that that the second most important goal for a typical intro course is, probably, the metacognitive training: learning how to learn. Which, again, suffered with</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“mastery</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> training”, because of its emphasis on skills. And so, even though it was fun to try, I think that</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“mastery</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> grading” may just be poorly suited for intro courses in biology; at least of a type we teach here at Bard. 200-level biology, or some electives - maybe. 100-level math: maybe, for a different reasons. But not the bio intros.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">What could be an alternative? Do I have to return to a vastly inferior point-based grading, just because it feels more familiar to students, and so less intrusive? Maybe not! Introducing: yet another revolutionary grading technique, called</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“The</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> Ungrading”! While lots is written about it </span>[<a href="https://www.jessestommel.com/how-to-ungrade/">2</a>, <a href="http://www.digitalpedagogylab.com/session/radical-assessment-and-ungrading/">3</a>], here are the key points:</div>
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<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Lots of feedback, but no letter grades or even points</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">2-3 written self-reflections</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(self-evaluations),</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> in which students are encouraged to, essentially, grade themselves, and give themselves advice on how to do better [<a href="https://dgst101.com/midterm-self-reflection-5b19070d2963">4</a>]</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Followed by a one-on-one discussion in office hours</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">The final grade in the course, for each student, is assigned by this student themself. If the grade does not feel right to the instructor, they negotiate. In extreme cases, instructor reserves the right to override the grade, but in practice it happens very rarely, and even then, usually upwards, rather than downwards.</span></li>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">What are the benefits of this approach? The biggest two are:</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(1)</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> a replacement of extrinsic motivation</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(grades)</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> with intrinsic motivation</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(learning),</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> which is known to be better [<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/03/getting-out-grading">5</a>]</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">, and</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(2)</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> explicit introduction of metacognitive exercises and discussions. Which was precisely what mastery grading lacked, as it shifted the focus on prepping a bit too much for my liking. And again, prepping is OK and fun in some classes, if students are into it, and know what they are doing. But in an exploratory intro class, a metacognition-oriented design may be much more impactful [<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Knowing-How-to-Study-Can-Mean/246644?utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en&cid=pm">6</a>].</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">And yet, in its pure form,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Ungrading”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> feels very dangerous. It is known to be paradoxically anxiety-triggering</span><span class="autolink author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">:</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> it is so unlike anything students have experienced before that they freak out, and cannot believe that it is not a trap [<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/04/02/professors-reflections-their-experiences-ungrading-spark-renewed-interest-student">7</a>]</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">. And even at the existential level, pure self-evaluation can be incredibly stressful</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(think</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> of the impostor syndrome!). This downside could potentially be corrected with thoughtful one-on-one discussions on inclusion, and personalized advice on learning strategies, but I think that for most faculty, me included, it would be a tough ask. It would come dangerously close to life coaching, or maybe even therapy, which we are never good at.</span></div>
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<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Moreover, pure</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Ungrading”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> feels particularly dangerous for teaching a highly heterogenious group of students: if a third of your class suspects that they may not belong, while another third are competitive</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“gunners”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> that try to out-achieve anything that moves, it is easy to see how a system of complete self-grading can be perceived negatively by everyone, and become really detrimental for everyone’s learning. And then there are the mundane issues of class attendance and the use of mind-altering substances immediately before class. In essence, pure</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Ungrading”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> feels like a case of a very</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Not-inclusive</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> pedagogy”, in the sense that it does not offer students enough structure and motivational support to help them succeed with their studies [<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190719_inclusive_teaching">8</a>].</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Is there a way to fix this system, and negate the negative sides of it, while keeping the good? I think the answer is</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“yes”:</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> if we combine Ungrading with a simple version of Specification grading, to make sure that the course has some strong, fine-grained structure, but still retains the reflective aspect of</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Ungrading”.</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> The structure will help to reduce anxiety, both for those students who don’t yet know how to work and how to feel about their own success in class, and for those that are concerned with permissive grading systems being somehow unjust. Remember that prof who gave a</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“B”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> to everyone, but required extra work for an</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“A”,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> which really was the most run-down version of specification grading? [<a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1975/5/14/a-quiet-act-of-impiety-prichard/">10</a>] </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">We could use a similar approach! The coolest thing about specifications is that they give you a powerful tool for combining very different types of assignments, by separating them into different strata</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(aka</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Bundles”).</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> With specifications, we can have the best of all worlds: a structured</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“minimum</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> required performance”, a free-form reflective</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Ungrading”,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> and a</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“challenging</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> bonus assignment” on top, for those who want to walk an extra mile. We can reap all the benefits of not grading, without paying the price of it!</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">But enough rambling; at this point I’ll just post the draft of my new syllabus below, which I hope is rather self-explanatory. What do you think? Would it work? Any suggestions, while I can still make changes to it?</span></div>
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<h1 data-usually-unique-id="598942564086641650676217">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Intro to Neurobiology, Draft Syllabus</span></h1>
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<h2 data-usually-unique-id="006544144991690404616501">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">(Section on grading)</span></h2>
</div>
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<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">This course is graded using a</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Specification</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> Grading” system, which is known to work better than the standard</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“Point-based”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> system, both in terms of final results, and student experience. The gist here is that each letter grade comes with a certain list of criteria, and it is up to you to pick the level you want to achieve.</span></div>
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<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">To get a </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"><b>C: </b></span></div>
<ul class="listtype-bullet listindent1 list-bullet1">
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Participate in 80% of classes</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Participate in 80% of labs</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Submit 60% of short written assignments</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(weekly</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> reading reflections, labs, short exercises etc.) They don’t have to be perfect, but they need to be reasonable. If any given submission is problematic, I’ll let you know within a week, so that you could improve next time.</span></li>
</ul>
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<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">To get a </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"><b>B:</b></span></div>
<ul class="listtype-bullet listindent1 list-bullet1">
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Participate in 90% of classes</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Participate in 90% of labs</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Submit 90% of short written assignments</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Submit 2 reflective letters</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(each</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> about 3 pages long; see the descriptions below). One before the mid-semester break; the other one before the completion week. The letters should be meaningful; if they are not, I’ll let you know, and give you a chance to resubmit.</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Come to office hours at least once in the first half, and once in the second half of the semester.</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">To get an </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"><b>A:</b></span></div>
<ul class="listtype-bullet listindent1 list-bullet1">
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">On top of everything specified in</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“B”,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> write a good final essay about a neuroscience paper; then meet with me during the completion week, to discuss both the paper and the essay. See the instructions below.</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<h2 data-usually-unique-id="268632720391773272456602">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Reflective letters</span></h2>
</div>
<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">To get a</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“B”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> or higher, you need to write two letters, reflecting on this class, and your work in it.</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">For the first reflective letter</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(to</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> be written before the mid-semester break), please answer these questions. Each answer should be about half a page</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(200-300</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> words).</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<ol class="listtype-number listindent1 list-number1" start="1">
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Please describe your personal goals for this course. What do you want to take from it? What do you want too learn and understand? Why? </span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Describe the coolest, most interesting thing you learned in this course so far. Try to write as if you were describing it to your friend who is not taking this course. Please tell me why you, personally, find it interesting.</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Describe one topic you studied in this course that you still do not completely understand, but would like to understand. Try to explain how you know that you don’t understand it fully yet. This is a tricky question, as it is hard to notice that you don’t understand something, and it is even harder to write about it. Note that if what separates you from knowing this topic is a few minutes of googling, it clearly does not count as an answer. Try to think deeply about everything we studied in this course, and whether you really got it. It is an important skill: to know what you know, what you don’t, why you want to know it, and how to get there.</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Describe how you study for this course</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(half</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> a page). How much do you study each week? How do you use this study time? What sources do you use? Have you tried to study with someone? Have you looked for help? Note that I will not judge your studying schedule, even if you confess that you don’t study at all. I just want to know what you do, and I want you to think about it.</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Tell me something about this class, your work in it, and your experience of it. What seems to work well? What does not? Why? How to make it work better? If there are any particular things you would like me to address, please let me know. I’d like to know what you think, and how you feel.</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">If you had to give yourself a mid-term letter grade for the first half of this course, what grade would it be? Why not a higher, or a lower one? Note that this self-grading won’t affect your actual grade at all, so let’s just honestly think, and later talk about it.</span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Second paper</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(to</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> be written in the second half of the semester, before the completion week). Each response should take about half a page</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(200-300</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> words).</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<ol class="listtype-number listindent1 list-number1" start="1">
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Describe the most important, most useful thing, either conceptually or practically, that you learned in this course. Not necessarily the most interesting one, but the one that is consequential, for you, personally. What makes it important?</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Reflect on your work in the second half of this course, compared to the first half of it. Is there anything that you do differently now, compared to 2-3 months earlier? Have you tried to deliberately change something about your studies? Did it work? Have you stopped doing something because it did not feel productive? </span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">If you had to give yourself a letter grade for this course, what grade would it be? Why not a higher grade? Why not a lower one? Again, this self-grading won’t affect your actual grade, but I’d like us to talk about it.</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">What are you plans for next semester, and next year? What do you want to do? What do you want to learn? Are they the same plans that you had as you arrived at Bard, or did anything change? If yes, why? Did the courses you took this semester affect your plans for the future, in any way?</span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<h2 data-usually-unique-id="743042377735820180266536">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Final essay, and a discussion of it</span></h2>
</div>
<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">This assignment is only required if you want to go an extra mile</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(above</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> a letter grad of</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“B”).</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> If you put good work in it, you can get an</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“A”;</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> if you don’t put enough work, you can get an</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“A</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> minus”, or a</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“B</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> plus”, depending on how far you get.</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">First, you need to find a neuroscience paper that you’d like to write about, from a journal named eLife ( </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z url"><a class="dynamiclink" href="https://elifesciences.org/" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://elifesciences.org/</a></span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> ). It is an open-access journal, so all papers are freely available online. It may make sense to find a paper that has something to do with something we learned in class, but if you want to go rogue, it is also possible</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(just</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> make sure it’s neuroscience). Also, it has to be a primary paper: an experiment, a model, or a meta-analysis, but not a literature review, or an opinion piece. </span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Send me an e-mail with a link to the paper, to claim it. If I think that the paper is a poor choice, I’ll let you know</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(it’s</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> unlikely, but just in case).</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">The earliest you can claim the paper is a week before the mid-semester break. The latest you can claim it, is immediately before the completion week. The more time you have, the better you can prepare, and the more feedback I can give you, when you ask for it.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Read the paper of your choice. Read some of the papers that it references, to learn the background</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(especially</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> those referenced in the</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“introduction”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> section). Make sure you understand what question this paper asks, and why it is important. What are the consequences of knowing it? What are the hypotheses the authors had? You need to understand the methods. You need to know the figures, and understand what they are trying to say. You also need to read the exchanges that the authors and the reviewers had before the paper got accepted</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(eLife</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> is one of the few journals that publish these exchanges openly). You need to get a good idea of what happened there, at the review stage; what the concerns were, and how the authors responded to these concerns.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Then write your essay. It should clearly address the following points:</span></div>
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<ol class="listtype-number listindent1 list-number1" start="1">
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">The rationale for the paper</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(what</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> makes its question important), and the background needed to understand the study. Explain what we need to know before we even start reading the paper of your choice.</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">The narrow question</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(or</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> questions) the paper posed, and associated hypotheses.</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">The methods used. You need to have a good grasp of the general idea of each method, and some meaningful details about them. Outline weak and strong points of these methods, compared to others methods authors could have conceivably used within the same time and financial budgets.</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">The overall structure of the paper, including the key message of each panel in each figure. How do these messages contribute to the answer the paper eventually provides? How do different figures interact with each other?</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">The answer eventually provided by the paper. Make sure to refer back to the narrow question the authors posed, and the hypotheses they had. What does this answer mean, in a broader scale of things?</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">What are the limitations of this study? What follow-up studies can be inspired by this study? Some of these are probably outlined in the Discussion, some may be identified from the peer review materials, some you can discover yourself. Make sure to go beyond the obvious; if a limitation is true for every paper ever written, it is probably not the most useful thing to discuss.</span></li>
</ol>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">You need to submit the final version of the essay by the first day of completion week, and we’ll schedule a meeting to talk about it. In the meeting, we will discuss the paper you wrote about, using your essay to answer the six questions outlined above. </span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">There will also be a deadline to submit a draft version of your essay. If you submit something by this deadline, I will read your draft, and offer you feedback. We can also meet during drop-in hours, to talk about your project.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">The measure of success here is the depth of your research towards understanding this one single paper. Some topics, methods, and analyses are inherently more complicated, while some are simpler, so we are not going after some predefined level that you need to reach. Rather, I want to see your independent work, and your ability to use what we learned in class to learn more science on your own. If the paper is</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“easy”,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> I will expect a deeper understanding of it, and I may ask more follow-up questions. If the paper is hard or long, a deep understanding of only one part of it, perhaps as little as one figure, may suffice. What matters is the amount of thought you put in your project. You definitely don’t need to become perfect</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(it</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> is impossible to know everything!) but you need to kinda become a specialist in this one particular paper, compared to a person reading it for the first time.</span></div>
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khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-82607963240168811032019-06-11T12:15:00.001-04:002019-06-11T12:34:49.431-04:00Specification Grading - followup<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
You may remember <a href="https://khakhalin.blogspot.com/2019/04/mastery-specification-grading-and-why.html">my long and somewhat bleary-eyed article</a> about the new method of grading, called “Specification grading” or “Mastery grading” (depending on whom you ask). I wrote it mid-semester, and at that point I was convinced that it is the best grading system achievable; a method that pretty much solves all problems that we ever faced; the final form; grading as it was originally conceived in the mind of God…<br />
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Now, as the semester is over, I still think that this method is good and promising, but the picture is a bit more nuanced, and there are fewer “free lunches” coming with it than I expected.
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In this follow-up, I share my impressions of specification grading, split into three parts: “Things that are great” about this method; things that are sort of “Different about it” (not good or bad necessarily, but different; something to keep in mind); and finally, things that are problematic. I finish with a hint of how I hope to further adjust my grading system next semester.
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And again, if you are new to this method, read this post first:<br />
<a href="https://khakhalin.blogspot.com/2019/04/mastery-specification-grading-and-why.html">https://khakhalin.blogspot.com/2019/04/mastery-specification-grading-and-why.html</a><br />
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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Why specification grading is great</h2>
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<b>Students are more motivated. </b>This is not surprising, as it is the main reason people developed this grading approach to begin with! Grading is an artificial, extrinsic motivation, which also happens to put people on a scale, classifying them into “worthy” and “unworthy” (at least in their own minds), which is known to be extremely bad for the morale:<br />
<a href="https://medium.com/bits-and-behavior/grading-is-ineffective-harmful-and-unjust-lets-stop-doing-it-52d2ef8ffc47">https://medium.com/bits-and-behavior/grading-is-ineffective-harmful-and-unjust-lets-stop-doing-it-52d2ef8ffc47</a><br />
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The trick in fighting this mentality is of course to separate the helpful formative feedback from summative assessment. In point-based grading systems, you typically do it with a rubric, by trying to objectify student’s work as something that exists outside of their ego, and does not reflect back on their self-worth. It helps to some extent, but it’s not enough. With specification grading, you do it by marking all assignments on a pass/fail scale, which is in most cases rather permissive, and providing constructive, formative feedback in some other ways. And it seems to be working: in my anonymous course assessments, about 70% of students who filled the survey claimed that they either worked harder in this course than in comparable point-based courses, or that they learned more, despite putting in about the same amount of effort, just because they knew better, what skills and topics to concentrate on. A few students also claimed that the low-stress environment allowed them to spend more time on studying selected topics that they were genuinely interested in, which is of course great, if true. (The problem with questions like “did you work hard in this course” is of course that it’s unpleasant to say “no” to a question like that, so I bet these responses were a bit self-congratulatory. But still, students think that they were motivated! It is certainly a “yay” in my book!)<br />
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<b>Students are less stressed. </b>This is perhaps the most obvious benefit of this approach, and it makes teaching so much more fun, as the spirit in the classroom gets so much more cheerful and enthusiastic! 90% of students who filled the survey said that they were less (or even “way less”) stressed in this course, compared to a point-based course. One student said that they could not keep track of what topics they passed and what topics they didn’t, which made then anxious. I wonder why they wouldn’t stop by and ask during office hours, but even so, if less than 10% of students are stressed about the course, these days it counts as a huge win! High anxiety is arguably the main obstacle that prevents this generation from learning well, which makes it my personal enemy in the classroom. And specification grading does a great job in curbing it.
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<b>Students learn way more.</b> It’s about the 7th time that I taught some variant of this course, and in the past, in a typical class graded on a point-based system, about 60% of all written tests reached a passing score, and only about 5-10% of students reached proficiency in 80% of topics or more. In this latest rendition on this same class, but taught with “Specification grading”, 88% of all tests got a passing grade, and 90% of students (!!!) reached proficiency in 80% of topics or more. This is not at all surprising, considering that they could keep trying until they passed (some students only passed their tests from a 4th or even 5th attempt!), but it is still amazing! The level at which they knew stuff by the end of the course was just plain incredible! I had actual productive conversations about synaptic transmission and plasticity, with one student after another, which never happened in the past. For first-years, and at this scale, it was simply mind-blowing!
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<b>Office hours are fun and productive,</b> as students are forced to talk about their misunderstandings while they are trying to pass the test. That was potentially the best part of my experience with a new system: I never ever had office hours that full, and that fun before! Ever! Note that it may not be automatically true for your course: it only happened in my course because I made all retakes verbal. If a student wrote the quiz from the first attempt, they didn’t have to talk to me. If they needed to re-take a quiz however, they had to come to the office hours, and describe the topic to me, as I was asking them questions (Socratic if they fumbled; deeper follow-up questions if they were doing well). As I wrote in my previous account, it created an ideal setup for learning: if a student did not pass the test, we just ended up talking about their misconceptions and lacunae in their understanding. I could afford doing it, with 20 students in class, but of course it is not easily scalable (and actually I may not be able to repeat this experience next semester, as amazing as it was).
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<b>You get a much better picture of what exactly they misunderstand, and why. </b>Again, this may be less true if your quizzes are always written, but even then, you get so much more information from several attempts than from a single one. With one test, you never know whether it was you, who explained it badly, or whether they lack some background info, or whether they just partied the night before the test. But if you meet several times in a row, with a dozen of different students, having open-ended conversations about different concepts you taught, it gives you an opportunity to essentially look at the course with their eyes. If I had to revamp this course, or any other course for that matter, I would have switched to this “Mastery Grading + Verbal Exams” mode for one semester before the revamp, just to collect the data! Going through this experience made me really rethink the emphasis I put on different topics within the course, just because I discovered that some of them are hard for students in ways I was never able to identify before.
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<b>You get to know students better, </b>as you can observe their thinking, and even talk about their interests a bit. This, again, is only true if you decide to utilize your office hours for topic retakes, but at least for a small class, it is very achievable.
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<b>Despite higher satisfaction and better learning, it does not seem to inflate letter-grades. </b>My average grade in this course was typically either a “B” or a “B plus”, and if I reverse-calculate the average grade for my “Specification-graded class”, I end up with a similar average score. The distribution seems to be a bit more narrow this time (it is harder to get a C, but also harder to get an A), but the average grade is about the same.<br />
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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Neutral points to keep in mind
</h2>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Specification Grading puts a stronger emphasis on tests, and makes students study for the test. </b>It’s not really news, if you think of it; students always study for a test. Yet, if you give them an opportunity to retake the test several times, it makes this effect so much stronger! If the tests are good, it’s not a problem, but if they were kind of tangential to your course in the past; if you used them just to shake things up a bit, and make sure everybody come to class prepared, then be aware. Now they will come to the forefront of student’s minds. For example, if you test the vocabulary, in the past you could use this to check whether they did the reading. Now, they will actually put an effort in memorizing the vocabulary, which may be weird if your goal was the reading itself. My class developed a bit of a prepping vibe to it, as if its main goal was not to introduce students to the discipline, but rather to prepare them for taking higher-level classes in neuroscience. It was not that much of a problem, as it was always my goal, just I never before thought of it as my top priority. It was number three or four on the list in the syllabus, maybe, but not number one. And yet, by using old quizzes with a new grading system, I kind of inadvertently made it the top priority, which was a curious thing to realize after the fact.<br />
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<b>A different type of students fall through the cracks.</b> The strongest students and the weakest students fair about similarly in both grading systems, but the middle gets somewhat different. With point-based system, you are rewarding “natural talent” (whatever it means), social background (better schooling prior to the course), the ability to think quickly on-the-fly, and the ability to handle test anxiety. With mastery grading, you are rewarding persistence, and willingness to engage in potentially taxing interactions with the professor (as showing up to office hours every week may not be easy for some students). It means that you may see weak but persistent students succeed, while some really smart ones may fail, by repeatedly missing retake opportunities you offer. This may feel unusual, and almost counter-intuitive, but after some meditation on the topic, I decided that it is probably more fair that way. Or, at least, not any less fair than a point-based system.<br />
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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
What makes Specification Grading problematic
</h2>
<b><br /></b>
<b>It may require more of your time. </b>Again, if you always had fully loaded office hours, it would not be much of a difference, but if you were like me, with students barely showing up, now suddenly you’ll have four more hours of intense one-on-one tutoring every week. Depending on your goals, it may be great, but it is also something to keep in mind. And especially if you tend to naturally enjoy human interactions, as it may get dangerous for your productivity. There is probably a reason why Mastery Grading seems to be more popular in math and physics, compared to life or social sciences: it is relatively easy to create 5 different versions of essentially same assignment if you teach calculus or thermodynamics. Moreover, you may even have a TA to grade the work. With life sciences, it is harder, as it is quite rare that one could easily make several equivalent quizzes for the same topic. And grading writing assignments (short or long answers), while possible, is incredibly taxing, even if you do it pass/fail, and typically it cannot be delegated to a TA. Verbal exams are at least fun, but even then, the sheer amount of feedback you have to give, if every student attempts at least some assignment more than once, may be overwhelming.<br />
<br />
<b>Students tend to created backlogs, which puts an extra strain on last 2-3 weeks of the course. </b>Because everyone can retake at least something, the closer you get to the final deadline for the course, the more your office starts to look like an Apple Store on a Black Friday. I am not sure what to do about it, but it is clearly a problem.
<br />
<br />
<b>Attendance gets slightly worse </b>(unless you take attendance, making it part of the specification, which I typically don’t). With point-based grading, my daily quizzes served as an auto-attendance taker, as if a student missed a class, they also missed a quiz. With Mastery approach, they coudl always retake the quiz, so more arrogant students just started skipping classes. I’m guessing if I made my retake policy a bit less permissive, it could have helped (some educators use “retake tokens” that can be exchanged for a retake, but that are made intentionally scarce, with only 3 or 5 tokens issued to every person).
<br />
<br />
<b>Like every system, this system can be gamed.</b> You have to be vigilant, as some students will try to game your grading system by deliberately failing tests the first time around, cramming for the test, once they know it, and then trying to pass them without actually understanding much, through simple rote-memorization (which is a well known approach, apparently: <a href="https://www.edutopia.org/article/allowing-test-retakes-without-getting-gamed">https://www.edutopia.org/article/allowing-test-retakes-without-getting-gamed</a>). You can also see students come to the very door of your office with a handwritten list, quickly cram it for several more seconds, drop it on the floor, and enter your office, trying to start answering right away, while the data is still in their working memory. The trick here is to set limits either on the total number of retakes, or on the maximal frequency of retakes (I only allowed retakes once a week, which helped a lot). And for last-second-crammers, you just have to make sure to disrupt the narrative, and start with asking a few follow-up questions. After one-two attempts like that, students realize that actually honestly learning things gives a better result, and is actually easier than just memorizing answers to possible questions.
<br />
<br />
<b>As this system is unusual, it feels less transparent. </b>This is an unpleasant topic, but I think it needs to be mentioned. Look, as I said before, students are quite happy about this approach, and report 90% satisfaction with it, saying that they’d prefer it to a point-based system any time. However, when I asked them whether this system was easy to understand, only 50% of students said that it was easy; the other 50% said that they were “confused”, and that the point-based system felt easier, even if only because it is more familiar. If your goal is to teach well, it is not necessarily a problem. However, if your employment is dependent on student evaluations, you will almost certainly get lower scores on the “Grading criteria were clear” point of the rubric, which for some people may be a problem. Generally, for most places, it may be a good idea to try new grading systems only after tenure. Bard College is a bit more open to experiences, in this regard, and seems to value experimentation more, but I’m not tenured myself, so it is yet to be tested =)
<br />
<br />
<b>If you make getting a “B” easy, but getting an “A” hard, it may lead to hard conversations.</b> This is another unpleasant topic, but also worth mentioning. The problem here is that the specification grading mostly helps students in the middle of the curve: those who don’t pass all assignments on the first attempt, and are grateful for extra chances. Those students who tend to be doing well, on the other hand, may feel weird about this new unfamiliar system. Which means that, for a change, most conflicts you may have about final grades won’t be about students asking to change a D to a C, but rather about students asking to change a “B plus” to an “A”. And these conversations are just generally less pleasant, as you may have to negotiate with students who are more entitled, more pushy, and better equipped to work their way through the academic hierarchy. Moreover, the problem is further complicated by the fact that from the pedagogical point of view, it makes lots of sense to make “top-level” assignment, that separate “decent B-level work” from “excellent A-level work”, a bit more creative and ambitious. It totally makes sense, if you want to teach better, to tailor your assignments to your student’s needs, and to encourage them to step outside of the basic framework of the course. But it also means that your stronger students will feel uniquely challenged, compared to other assignments in the class. In a “normal” course, it rarely presents a problem: students never actually know how hard the final will be, and what curve you will use, but somehow it is a part of an accepted status quo. However, in a course that feels unusual, and is intentionally designed to be extremely transparent, this final assignment may suddenly feel “unfair”, just because it is surrounded by sparser scaffolding, compared to “basic assignments” that guarantee a “C” or a “B”. There are of course ways to help with this problem, but even so, be aware that “I deserve an A” situations are inherently more taxing for educator’s psyche than “I deserve to pass” ones.
<br />
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Summary, and further plans</h2>
<br />
Will I personally stick to the specification grading next year? Yes and no. Look, while in my original write-up I used “Specification grading” and “Mastery grading” interchangeably, actually “Mastery” is just a subset of “Specification”, and I expect that going a bit broader than “pure Mastery” can help with the workload a lot. For example, you might have read about that professor who refused to give fine-tuned letter grades, but instead gave everyone a default of a “B”, and required deeper extra work for an “A”: <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1975/5/14/a-quiet-act-of-impiety-prichard/">https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1975/5/14/a-quiet-act-of-impiety-prichard/</a><br />
<br />
While the article presents it as a revolutionary rebellion, essentially they just used a 2-level specification system, in which some basic level of engagement resulted in one grade, and honest extra effort was needed for the other. And I suspect that in life sciences, it may be better to shift from math-style “mastery grading” towards this more relaxed approach. This would allow to retain the best part of the “specification” model: that instead of trying to give a holistic assessment of every student’s “worth”, we would put the responsibility on students themselves, allowing them to set their personal goals, and choose the amount of work they want to do for the course. But I am less sure that I need to keep the “train them until they reach a bar” mindset. It works well in some courses (maybe in core courses, like chemistry or genetics, it would actually make lots of sense), but in expository courses (both 100s and 300s) it may be too restrictive.
<br />
<br />
In fact, I have already sketched a new version of my syllabus, for next semester, but I hope to find time to write a separate post about it. So stay tuned!
</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-70177934232486379692019-04-09T11:55:00.001-04:002019-04-09T12:23:14.481-04:00Mastery (specification) grading, and why you should try it<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote>
<i>Students come up during our Friday class, ask me for a completely optional voluntary quiz, I hand it to them, then they say “thank you!” An unbelievable occurrence that happens all the time with Mastery grading. -</i>- (<a href="https://twitter.com/katemath">@katemath</a>)</blockquote>
<br />
<br /></div>
This semester I tried a new approach to grading, called “Specification grading” (also known as Mastery-Based grading), and honestly, I think it is the best thing I’ve tried in my teaching career, ever. It is so good, it pains me to think that I haven’t discovered it earlier, and honestly I don’t understand why all faculty in the world haven’t switched to it yet. It’s not even “revolutionary”, it is just how grading should be. How it always meant to be.<br />
<br />
So now, as I hopefully grasped your attention with these empty superlatives, let me explain how specification grading works in practice. It may sound a bit confusing and underwhelming at first, so I’ll start with the definitions, then provide a rationale for them, and then will show how I adjusted my courses to this grading scheme, as an example.
<br />
<br />
There are three main principles:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Instead of assigning grade-points, and then calculating letter-grades based on these points, you define a set of criteria they need to meet to get an A. You also describe what share of these criteria students would need to meet to get a B, or a C. Some people call these criteria “bundles”, some call them “standards”, or “benchmarks”. </li>
<li>You give students several opportunities to meet each of these criteria. It can mean that they are allowed to take a test several times, until they pass. Or maybe they can rework and improve a piece of writing several times, until it is good enough. But that’s the key point: you don’t grade HOW and WHEN they arrived at a given level of mastery; you only care WHETHER they demonstrated this level of mastery before the course ends. </li>
<li>As your time is limited, and students can now try every assignment several times, you cannot afford to grade individual assignments on a point-based system: you either accept an assignment as “good enough” (if it passes your benchmark), or you say “try again”, and provide targeted feedback. Crucially, this feedback is completely uncoupled from the final grade.</li>
</ol>
<br />
This list may, at first, seem rather flat for the grandiose claim with which I started this letter. So, why does it work exactly? Here are the benefits, compared to a point-based system:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>- Students can try to pass a benchmark several times. It means that they keep practicing the task, which is of course the best way to learn! </li>
<li>- It also means that they have less anxiety (and as you have surely heard by now, anxiety is the biggest issue modern students face, for systemic / societal reasons). Imagine how liberating it is for a student to know that, at least in principle, in your course there are no irreversible mistakes. Given time, they can fix everything. If they are sick on a day of an exam, if they have test anxiety, they know that there’s a safety net. They can try again. They still need to plan their work (as you won’t accept it after the course is over), and they still need to put the effort in, but this system is infinitely easier on the nerves. </li>
<li>- There may be more than one way to pass a benchmark, which is great for inclusion. Say, you can decide to use a timed test for the first attempt, a short essay on a matching topic for the 2nd attempt, and an alternative between a longer take-home essay or a short verbal exam for all subsequent attempts. It’s up to you how you define the benchmarks! But this way if a student has a test anxiety, or an attention deficit, even if undocumented (which is common for students from traditionally underrepresented groups), they can always use this extra flexibility to meet your criteria. </li>
<li>- This improvement in students’ well-being is good for you, as now you don’t have to meet with sad anxious people, or entitled grade-grubbers, justifying each point on each quiz. If they think that you misunderstood them, they are always welcome to try again, and make sure that this time they are easy to understand. (Of course, some extreme students may still try to extort grades from you, but even then, this type of grading is really not conducive to grade-grubbing) </li>
<li>- It is also good for you, as it makes your grading easier, and almost painless. You no longer have to obsess about “marginal cases”. As any assignment can be retaken, it is much easier, psychologically, to say “Try again! This little thing is missing, but I’m sure you can get it right next time!” In fact, you don’t even have to say “try again”: you may choose to go with “fix this one thing, and it will be a “pass”. You no longer have to be obsessively specific, documenting and justifying every little point that you give or take away. The only thing that matters is that you give some good, pointed, clear feedback about those few things, or maybe even that one thing, that matters. </li>
<li>- For writing assignments that go through several revisions, the process of meeting the criteria becomes more of an interaction; similar to how we work with reviewers, when submitting a research paper to a journal. You tell students what they need to improve, if they want you to accept their work. You can also require that they make it easy for you to see and assess these changes (you can ask them to bring the previous copy with them, or “track changes”, or submit a list of responses - whatever works for you). And then you only recheck this one part that they improved; you don’t have to re-read the entire thing. </li>
<li>- As a side-effect of this “benchmark” approach, you may actually make some bundles optional, and required for an “A” only (but say, not for a “B”). Now it’s up to the student whether they want to take the challenge. This moves the initiative in learning to the student; makes them “buy” into the assignment, and commit to it. It improves their learning, as now they own it! </li>
<li>- And incidentally, it makes life a bit easier for you (which is important, as some of the points I described above could make your life a bit harder). If a student doesn’t want to attempt an assignment, as they are fine with a “B”, they just don’t. It means that you have less work to grade. And it is critical, as you have more to grade for those students who want to give another assignment another try!</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
How to convert an existing course to a specification grading system? Here’s my process:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Identify key criteria your students need to meet. Some of them may come from skills you teach (writing, presentation); some may represent different conceptual topics of your course (cell division, species diversity). Enumerate them. </li>
<li>For each criterion, define how you can tell whether a student “got it”. Try to find a test that may be repeated several times. Say, when teaching math, a professor may create 5 variants of an assignment, with 4 problems in each of them, and define “success” as solving 3 problems out of 4 (in which case “retake attempts” would not be not infinite, as one could only try each test 5 times, but it is still a lot!). Or you can make students work on a piece of writing, with a rubric, until they meet 9/10 of criteria of the rubric. It’s up to you how you define it; the only two things that matter is that students understand what they need to do, and that they can have several tries at it. </li>
<li>Once you defined an “A”, define how a “B” and a “C” would look like. You can define pluses and minuses as well, if you want to, or you can just state on your syllabus that pluses and minuses are reserved for intermediate cases.
4. Plan your assignments in a way that would give students time to attempt them. Say, you can no longer have a final exam on the completion week. But you can use the completion week to give students an extra opportunity to get passes on some of the prior topics.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
Now, some examples. I am teaching my “Introduction to Neurobiology” on a specification-based grading system this semester, and it works marvelously. Here’s an excerpt from the syllabus:<br />
<br />
<hr />
<blockquote>
Course material consists of four "Bundles":<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Core bundle (weekly reading reflections and practical homework). </li>
<li>Knowledge bundle (tested via quizzes). </li>
<li>Lab bundle (lab work and lab reports) </li>
<li>Depth bundle (paper reviews)</li>
</ol>
Depending on what end-course grade you want to get, you need to complete different bundles to different levels. Your grade is in your hands!<br />
</blockquote>
<table style="border-spacing: 0; border: 1px solid #c1c7cd; width: 100%; word-break: break-word;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 0; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 0; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">End-course grade</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 0; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Core</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 0; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Knowledge</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 0; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Lab</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 0; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Depth</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 0; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">A</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">not more than 1 reflection missed</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">All quizzes completed</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Good lab work, all lab reports</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">4 paper reviews</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 0; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">B</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">up to 2 reflections missed</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">90% of quizzes completed</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Good lab work, 80% of lab reports</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
</div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 0; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">C</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">up to 4 reflections missed</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">70% of quizzes completed</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">50% of lab reports</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
</div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 0; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">D</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">up to 5 reflections missed</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">50% of quizzes completed</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
</div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0; border-color: #c1c7cd; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 0; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-height: 20px; min-width: 50px; padding: 5px 8px; vertical-align: top; word-break: normal;"><div class="ace-line gutter-author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z ace-ltr" dir="auto">
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote>
<br />
All individual assignments are graded on a pass/fail (or rather, “pass / try again”) basis. There are no points, and no partial credits; you just need to pass. Simple!<br />
<br />
The core bundle is easy, but it is the only one that is unforgiving: you need to submit your short responses (typically, 2-3 sentences) on time, before 9 am the day the assignment is due (usually Monday). Make sure to set aside time for it, and put it on your schedule. That is the only one that cannot be redone.
<br />
<br />
For all other bundles, you can have several attempts to pass them. If you miss or fail a quiz, you can try again during allotted times in class (there will be one opportunity before the spring break, and one more during the completion week). Better yet, you can come to drop-in hours, or schedule a visit (send me an email), and pass this topic as a short verbal exam (conversation). You can have as many tries as you need; the only limitation is that you can only give it a try once a week, so if you tried but haven't passed, you need to have a week-long cool-down.
<br />
<br />
For lab work, you need to be present, and meaningfully engaged (e.g. not texting in a corner, but organizing your team, building things, taking notes, collaborating, logging and analyzing data etc.)
<br />
<br />
For lab reports and paper reviews, it is expected that you may have to go through several iterations. I will provide feedback, and request revisions, until your work passes.
<br />
<br />
The description of the paper review assignment will be shared separately.
<br />
<br />
No work will be accepted after the last day of Completion week.
<br />
<br />
Pluses and minuses will be used for intermediate cases, at the discretion of the instructor. The easiest way to get a plus is to go above the minimal set of requirements for a grade.
<br />
<br /></blockquote>
<hr />
<br />
<br />
In practice, for the “Knowledge” bundle, which corresponds to different conceptual topics we study (such as action potential, synaptic transmission, retinal circuitry etc.), I give students several attempts to pass them, and all of these attempts are slightly different. First they have a 10-min “pop quiz” in class. If they aren’t successful with it right away, they can either come to my office hours and have a verbal micro-exam, or they can wait till the special class time (15 min set aside during the lab time) when I make them provide a long answer in class. The verbal exam idea worked particularly well for me: for the first time ever, I actually have students come to my office hours, and these office hours are uniquely productive! I ask them to explain me a topic. If they are faltering, I help them. If they manage to explain the topic with only 1-2 prods, they earn a pass. If not, (and that’s the surprisingly great part!) our discussion just naturally evolves into a productive tutoring session. We transition right from their answer into a discussion about what they miss, or misunderstand, or need to express better, and then I tell them to come again in a week, and give it another try.
<br />
<br />
Only imagine how pleasant it is to meet with a student who “failed” a topic back two months ago, but who can now explain this topic to you reasonably well, even though you haven’t recently referred to it in class! It means that they went back to the material, studied it, and figured it out. They are happy, you are happy, it’s a win-win!
<br />
<br />
Does this approach necessarily make the course too easy? No, because now you can reasonalbly expect a bit better level of understanding! My mid-term results were 30% “B”; 40% “B”, 10% “C”, and 20% “D”, which is pretty similar to my grade distributions in prior years, when I used point-based grading. But who got As and Bs this time was slightly different: people who would typically be B students, but who persevere, got an A, while some smart but scattered students got a B, or even a “C”. At this point, all students can still get an A if they want to, but they need to put some effort if they want to earn it. (And in fact I had a bout of activity immediately after the spring break, as students received mid-term grades, didn’t like it, and closed some of the gaps, so current running grades are actually a bit higher than the mid-term grades).
<br />
<br />
Does this approach increase the work load on the faculty? I want to tentatively say “no”; at least, not if you assume that office hours were already spent meeting with students, before you switched to this method, and also assuming that you don’t overcommit. It was an increase for me personally, as I almost never had students attend my office hours before, and now they are packed, but it is still contained within about 2-3 hours a week, so it seems doable. It also makes planning office hours more important, as this approach essentially makes office hours attendance semi-required for a student to succeed. Which means that if a student has a time conflict, you may have to meet with them outside of you normal office hours, which may be hard sometimes. But that said, grading got so much easier, and (crucially) it is no longer painful, or emotionally draining, that it is still a net win. You know that you don’t close the door of opportunity, which gives you a moral permission to be a bit more demanding when working with “gray zone” answers, which is a huge relief, and makes the process almost pleasant.
<br />
<br />
The only word or caution here: there may be students who, despite all your statements and encouragement, both in class and in the syllabus, would be hesitant to come to office hours, especially if your standard drop-in hours don’t work with their schedule. They would be ashamed to be a burden, so they’ll just sit there, waiting for in-class opportunities to retake the quiz, but they won’t be proactive about it. It may be a personality issue, or an issue of culture, or both (think socioeconomic status, gender, introversion), but either way, if one needs to come to your office to retake the quiz, make sure that you demand from each student that they show up to office hours at least once. And then talk to them. Make sure they believe you when you say that retaking a quiz is part of the deal, and not some extra favor they have to ask for.
<br />
<br />
<br />
Finally, as another example, here’s what I plan to do with my Statistics class next fall. For topical goals, I’ll still use problem quizzes, but will prepare several versions of them. While verbal exams are great, because stats are closer to math, I think problems could work better. For skills (data wrangling, R coding, visualization, figure captions), I’ll introduce several in-class data workshops that would each count towards “closing” a topic. This would be a change to my current process: in the past, I offered all workshops as take-home assignments; graded some of them, and provided formative feedback on the rest. All workshops were submitted openly but anonymously (every student could see every other student’s submission), and the final exam was optional (if you liked your running grade, you could skip it). Now I will have to split all workshops into two types: those that are take-home, and those submitted by the end of class. (I still plan for both types to be submitted openly and anonymously). Take-home assignments will count towards “participation” (every student needs to submit something vaguely reasonable), while n-class assignments will serve as mid-terms. Except that these mid-terms will be “anticumulative”: if you proved that you know topic A, you don’t have to polish this part of an assignment anymore, you can concentrate on the topic B part of it. (I still need to put some thought into making it transparent to students, but it seems doable).
<br />
<br />
To sum up, I think specification grading (aka Mastery grading) is obviously better than the point-based grading: both for the students, and for the faculty. It seems to improve learning; it is more fair and inclusive, and it is unexpectedly pleasant to use! So I definitely encourage you to give it a try!
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
References</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Kate Owens. A Beginner’s Guide to Standards Based Grading (A practical blog post)
<a href="https://blogs.ams.org/matheducation/2015/11/20/a-beginners-guide-to-standards-based-grading/">https://blogs.ams.org/matheducation/2015/11/20/a-beginners-guide-to-standards-based-grading/</a></div>
<br />
Sadler, D. R. (2005). Interpretations of criteria‐based assessment and grading in higher education. Assessment & evaluation in higher education, 30(2), 175-194.
<a href="https://uncw.edu/cas/documents/sadler2005.pdf">https://uncw.edu/cas/documents/sadler2005.pdf</a><br />
<br />
Carberry, A., Siniawski, M., Atwood, S. A., & Diefes-Dux, H. A. (2016, June). Best practices for using standards-based grading in engineering courses. In Proceedings of the 123rd ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, New Orleans, LA.<br />
<a href="https://www.asee.org/file_server/papers/attachment/file/0006/9169/SBG_ASEE_final_submitted.pdf">https://www.asee.org/file_server/papers/attachment/file/0006/9169/SBG_ASEE_final_submitted.pdf</a><br />
<br />
A giant open repository of materials on Mastery-based grading (curated by Dr. Rachel Weir, Allegheny College):<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GNSqfOb0LZS6BeAuc1tqPDZWKkPk11KT">https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GNSqfOb0LZS6BeAuc1tqPDZWKkPk11KT</a><br />
<br />
Nilson, L. (2015). Specifications grading: Restoring rigor, motivating students, and saving faculty time. Stylus Publishing, LLC. (Book)
</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-53855785082914896472019-03-04T14:04:00.001-05:002019-03-04T14:29:21.666-05:00Advice to former self #3: Grading is overrated<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">I don’t know about you, but grading used to absolutely terrify me. Maybe that’s because of my unproductive perfectionism, literal thinking, and a tendency to complicate things, but I just could not get grading right. I mean, one can argue whether</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“right”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> is ever achievable, but I like to think that for most topics out there, I know at least a general direction towards what constitutes</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“better”,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> and so I can try to set on a decent trajectory. For point-based grading, it was always different. There seems to be no</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“ideal</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> grading”, no win-win solution. If you consider all possible ways to grade, you’ll get a weird optimization landscape, where all extreme cases are just plain horrible, and somewhere in the middle sits a mediocre maximum of</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“least</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> painful grading”. It is a depressing, </span><span class="attrlink url author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"><a class="attrlink" data-target-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_of_all_possible_worlds" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_of_all_possible_worlds" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Leibniz-style</a></span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> philosophy: the best grading is the one that makes everyone about equally unhappy, and the reasons for that unhappiness are as diverse as possible</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(that</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> is, the mean(gradient)==0, which in practice means that different students should complain about different things, without any single common theme).</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Let me elaborate, and let me start with the most basic question: why do we grade? I can probably come up with three main reasons: 1) we want to give students some feedback; 2) we want to loan them a bit of our willpower, to help them do the work, by providing some external motivation, and finally</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(3)</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> we want to make sure that good students are rewarded with </span><span class="attrlink url author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"><a class="attrlink" data-target-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics)" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics)" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" target="_blank">signalling tokens</a></span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">, such as a good GPA</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(some</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> people may call it</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“justice”,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> or</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“fairness”).</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> Even if you don’t believe in objective justice, or your ability to discern it</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(and</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> I certainly have strong doubts here), we still want to trust young doctors who will operate on us in 20-30 years from now, right? Which means that I want to reward good students, rather than bad ones. So it all boils down to feedback, coaching, and fairness.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Now, if we try to translate these</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“goals”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> into practical criteria of a</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“good</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> grading system”, we can probably capture the essence of it with five guiding principles:</span></div>
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<ol class="listtype-number listindent1 list-number1" start="1">
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Grades should be informative</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(to</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> serve as productive feedback)</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">They should be encouraging</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(to</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> help coaching)</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">They should assess something that matters; something that is relevant</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(to</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> be fair)</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">They should be quantifiable, measurable</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(again,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> to be fair)</span></li>
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Grading process should be time-efficient</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(time</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> is limited, and we want to maximize impact)</span></li>
</ol>
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<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">The problem with these statements is that they are all, to some degree, contradictory. To be truly informative, grades should be brutally honest, but this would make them extremely disheartening. For example, if you only grade on a pass/fail basis, and each assignment can only be attempted once, then to achieve highest information transfer, you would need to adjust your grading criteria for every student, to maintain an average failure rate of 50%. Can you imagine what would happen to a human if they keep failing at a 50% rate whenever they do? They will probably quit, won’t they? I am not sure what is the most</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“encouraging”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> rate of failures, but judging from computer games, it should be at about 10%, just to give it a bit of spice, while still keeping it safe. Which of course would make for a very inefficient training system.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Or consider another point: WHAT do we grade? Is it the final performance, the growth, or the effort? Final performance is easy to quantify</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(objective,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> measurable), but it is fundamentally unfair, as in every class, and especially in skill-based classes like math and CS, some students would start with a baggage of transferable skills, and some will have to catch up a lot. And it does not just</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“feel”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> unfair; grading of the final product is fundamentally misplaced, as it does not measure any relevant skills of each student: their ability to learn, to grow, to persevere, or their</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“true</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> potential”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(whatever</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> it means, as</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“true</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> potential” is of course unmeasurable by definition). So grading by performance is bad.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">To battle this issue, you may be tempted to grade growth, but this approach contradicts the principle #5 of time efficiency. To reliably measure a slope you have to have 3-4 times more point-estimations than if you only measure the final product. Slope is just a very noisy thing to assess, and so, again, we are caught in a contradiction. Either our estimations of</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“growth”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> are so noisy that it makes them irrelevant, and thus unfair, or we spend all of our time on grading, which warps our curriculum, and hurts our teaching and research.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">What options are left? We can try to grade on effort, as a time-efficient proxy for growth. But then again, effort can be gamed more easily than any other measure, and also effort is actually a rather bad proxy for growth, as efforts may be so easily misplaced</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(through</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> inefficient work, procrastination, etc.).</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">In practice most people I know use a system that somehow combines these three aspects into one</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“index”.</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> Say, 40% of the grade comes from a final exam</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(product),</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> 30% from participation</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(essentially,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> effort), 30% comes from labs, with 2 worst labs dropped</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(essentially</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> - growth). Each part of this equation on its own is unfair, but the reasons are different, and we hope that the final formula is more-or-less OK</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“on</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> average”.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">But then we run into a yet different issue: students are not good in understanding grading rubrics! Imagine somebody teaching calculus one, and having a grading rubric that essentially uses formulas like grade = a*x1 + b*max(x2,x3), where each of the x values is also somewhat curved. No wonder students never understand grading rubrics! As a result, half of them give up on easy but critical assignments</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(which</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> earns them a C), and the other half come to your office hours arguing about a 1 point on a 20-point daily quiz, which translates to something like 0.00002 of their final GPA. They just don’t get it! I experienced it first-hand in my second year of teaching: for several months I was working on my rubric, hoping to make it fair, objective, and transparent. By the end of semester I learned that all of my students were convinced that my grades were completely subjective, and took into account my personal guesses about the intrinsic</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“worth”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> of each person. In other words, they assumed </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"><i>the exact opposite </i></span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">of what I was telling them</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(or</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> at least what I thought I was telling them), and what was formally written on the syllabus. Because they didn’t understand it.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Ironically, it means that the more balanced your grading system is, the less transparent it seems to students, which makes them anxious, and violates requirement #2, as at this point grades no longer serve as a good encouragement.</span></div>
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<div>
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">And contradictions don’t even end here! We have yet another one, about curving grades, vs. using fixed thresholds. If you have adjustable thresholds for As and Bs</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(what</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> point-score corresponds to each letter grade), you can change assignments from one semester to another</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(which</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> is good), or even on the fly</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(even</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> better!), and also you can adjust your criteria if a snow day steals a lecture, or you get sick and fail to explain something well enough. You can correct your grading! But as a payment for that, students get really upset, as they are unable to translate their tests results into letter-grades, which obviously increases anxiety, and decreases their performance. There is a solution for that: curving, where you give a fixed share of As, Bs, etc. But if you officially introduce curving on your syllabus, students start competing with each other, which ruins course dynamics, kills collaborative assignments, and makes everyone unhappy. So no luck here as well. As Ken Bain describes in his famous book, good grading is always somewhere in-between curving and fixed thresholds.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">There’s also a question of how hard would you make your assignments, given that students come to class with different skills, and different abilities. Should you serve top 10%, and explicitly give up on the bottom 50%?</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(That’s</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> how Soviet model of STEM education worked: recruit the best, let the rest die). Or should you aim at about the median student?</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(American</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> system). Or would you go for the lower third?</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(Don’t</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> they do it in Finland?). Whichever option you choose, some students will complain that the course is going too fast, and some - that it is going too slow. And all you can do is to make sure that the proportion of complaints is</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“on</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> target”, whichever your target is (in the US usually 50/50).</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">To sum up: grading is horrible, unpleasant, and imperfect by design. That’s probably why everyone hates it.</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(see</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> also: </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z url"><a class="dynamiclink" href="https://rtalbert.org/traditional-grading-the-great-demotivator/" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://rtalbert.org/traditional-grading-the-great-demotivator/</a></span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> )</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">So, how to fix grading? Actually, at this point it seems that I have a very good solution</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(I</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> wish I would have found it earlier!), which was described i</span>n 2015 by Linda Nilson, and<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> is in fact nothing short of revolutionary! But that will be a topic of a separate</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(next)</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> post!!</span></div>
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khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-88479050360617405452018-12-19T15:38:00.002-05:002018-12-19T15:38:51.602-05:00Advice to former self #2: Don't be a drill seargeant<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<ul class="listtype-indent listindent1 list-indent1" style="list-style-type: none;">
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Remember: It is NOT your responsibility to bring students to some predefined point B. You give an opportunity, not a guarantee. Make sure this opportunity is good, fair, inclusive, but don’t be a drill sergeant</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(pointless,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> painful). Have fun, and limit, contain your time and efforts.</span></li>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Well, this one is easy, and probably even less controversial <a href="https://khakhalin.blogspot.com/2018/12/advice-to-former-self-1-contain.html">than the first one</a>, but it took me a while to believe in it, and the realization was rather painful. Wasted a few semesters in needless bitterness and anxiety!</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">As a zealous neophyte, I binged on books and articles about pedagogy and teaching techniques: active learning, spaced repetition, concepts transfer. I designed my syllabi, and then my classes, with the highest <b>impact</b> in mind, and the effect was rather peculiar: students learned A TON, and, based on my internal</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“before</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> and after” tests, their progress was quite astounding. But they were also angry, bitter, and overall unhappy.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Now, there are several communities online where jaded sad professors rant, under the veil of anonymity, about how students are ungrateful, and how the over-reliance on course evaluations spawned an inflation of praise, good grades, participation prizes,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“the</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> coddling of the mind”, and what not.</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“In</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> our times”, they say… And I don’t really buy that. For one, I think it is unfair for older people to berate modern students for their</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“weakness”,</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> as the</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“real</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> world” that meets college graduates these days is so different from what it was even just 20 years ago: more competitive, less predictable. And also, the memories we have of our own past are shaped by the survival bias, and creative reinterpretaton of facts. Just because we came to peace with memories of a tough course that we hated back at school, does not mean that this course was any good. It just means that we grew older, and forgot just how unnecessarily painful it was.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">It is really easy to concoct an image of oneself as a suffering hero, a self-sacrificial teacher whose true effect on young lives will be evident only in 10 years from now, and only by the selected few. One day they will stop in their tracks to suddenly realize: yes, this class back in college was hard and painful, but now I see how my professor truly taught me some Calculus! And now I’m so grateful for that!</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">But this would all be complete and utter nonsense. It goes beyond saying that course evaluations are a horrid way of evaluating faculty, but it does not mean that, as a professor, you should not care about whether students like your courses; about the emotional effect these courses have. In a way, nothing is more important than this fleeting emotional effect. If your students don’t like math while in your class, why would they ever return to math on their own? They will never use it, they will run away from it, and all your supposedly</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“efficient”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> teaching will be wasted on them, wasted completely. And because of that, there is nothing wrong with being lax and forgiving, if it makes students more engaged.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">It all sounds so obvious, and maybe it was always obvious to you, dear reader; maybe you see it is a straw-man argument, but for me it was a tough realization. I spent two years or so working as a drill sergeant, prepping students for battle, as if a race of evil aliens was just about to descend on Earth in a few weeks’ time. And it totally did not work. So these days I’m trying to be as lax as I can get, without having them students completely spoiled</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(I’ll</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> later describe some practical solutions in a separate post). I am sure that with my Russian heritage and upbringing, even the most chill and kind version of me is still reasonably scary and unnecessarily intense, but hey at least I’m trying!</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">So here’s my current approach: I downplay extrinsic motivation to bare minimum, and make it very clear from the very beginning. Here’s the class, my goal is to be here for you, and to provide you with a nice set of opportunities. I will also regularly remind you about best practices, but I will not attempt to punish you for not following them. I don't think it is my job. </span>My job is to open the doors for you, and to show why I think the topics we are studying are fun. But it is up to you to decide how much you want to get from this class. What are your goals? Of all the options on the table, which ones are you planning to use?</div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">I think it is a win-win. Easier, more pleasant teaching, which is also much more effective in the long-term.</span></div>
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khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-70596088583827280962018-12-11T14:48:00.000-05:002018-12-11T14:51:42.200-05:00Advice to former self: #1 - Contain teaching within 4 days a week<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">A week ago I posted</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-quot"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-quot">"10</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> pieces of advice to former self", or</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-quot"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-quot">"10</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> things I wish I knew when starting my TT position", as a Twitter thread. It turned to be a double failure: it didn't get any traction on Twitter, and yet it worried some of my colleagues, who thought that some of my statements</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“might</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> be misconstrued”, and who were kind enough to reach out to me and say that. Basically, my</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“advice”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> sounded too negative and controversial.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">I am not quite sure what to make of it: maybe I’m just not good in Twitter, or maybe indeed these topics just don’t project to Twitter format well. After all, any</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“advice</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> to new faculty” is bound to be at least somewhat counter-intuitive, and thus, potentially, controversial, just by virtue of being a piece of advice. If something is obvious, it doesn’t get a chance to become advice, as everybody know it and agree with it to begin with. There’s no need of reminding people that they need to work more. However sometimes you may have to remind people to work less, or to shift priorities in some not-so-obvious way. Maybe Twitter is just not that good for that sort of nuanced provocative controversy.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Also, any attempt to give advice to</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“former</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> self” may sound bitter. Revisiting failures, even relative, even perceived, is never pleasant. There’s a saying in Russian:</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“to</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> bite one’s own elbows”, which means</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“to</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> obsess about past decisions that can no longer be changed”. I’m guessing it is some sort of a meta-joke, at a folk linguistic scale, as obviously biting one’s elbows is physically impossible, making it into an awesome metaphor of anxiety-driven internal struggle. And casting bitterness and anxiety into 280-character sluggets just does not sound right.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">So, here comes a take two: I’ll try to post same unsolicited</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“pieces</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> of advice” as a series of blog posts. With more background, and more thoughts on the topics.</span><br />
<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"><br /></span>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">The piece of advice number one:</span></div>
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<ul class="listtype-indent listindent1 list-indent1" style="list-style-type: none;">
<li><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Don’t obsess about teaching. Remember that teaching occupies all space, time, and heart available. Fight it! You cannot make everyone happy, and you WILL get better with time, provided that you collect feedback and reflect. Fight to contain teaching strictly within 4 days a week!</span></li>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Let me begin by saying that, of course, I heard this advice repeatedly when I started at Bard. it is, I believe, an integral part of any honest orientation for new faculty in a teaching-oriented institution. It may sound counter-intuitive, as aren’t faculty in a teaching institution supposed to care a lot about teaching? But that’s exactly the problem: they care about teaching a lot, they are chosen for this job by this very criterion, they are obsessed with teaching. If you, dear reader, have started in a SLAC this year, it means that you are obsessed with teaching!</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Moreover, if you are in a STEM field, the chances are that you’re coming here from a postdoc. As a postdoc, you always wanted to teach, but probably could not dedicate enough time to it, and also, probably, you didn’t have the freedom to develop your own courses the way you wanted. So now you feel exhilarated; drunk on freedom. At least in my school, one can craft their syllabus pretty much any way they want, within some very reasonable limits, which is awesome, and scary, and awesome!</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">But the trick with teaching is that while it is fun, it is also a trap. For two reasons. One, it is a very open-ended task. You cannot be</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“done”</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> with teaching on any particular week, you can always do more. You can read a bit more, develop a few more assignments, provide some personalized feedback, rework your next class, so on and so forth. There is no natural arc to your activities on any given week: there’s only the law of marginal returns that gradually fades your efforts into the fog. First hour of preparation is critical, the second one matters, the third adds some polish, the fourth takes care of details… There is no logical end-line to it, yet at some point you need to stop.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">What makes it even worse, is that while teaching what you love, and especially when teaching it for the first few times, you cannot see this line clearly. You don’t have enough experience, and also you are blinded by the swarm of possibilities in your head. So the only trick I know is to set very hard, and very artificial limits on time periods you allow yourself to spend on teaching and prepping. These days, I have a target, trying to fit all teaching in 3 days, leaving 1 day for service, and 1 day for research. I also have a hard limit, in which teaching is restricted to 4 days, while for one day all teaching-related activities are forbidden. I have to admit that I failed to stick to my own plan on two weeks this semester already: during the mid-ways, and now, as the semester is ending. But at least I’m trying.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Another aspect of teaching that turns it into a trap, I guess, would not apply to all, but it does apply to people like me: those with a narcissistic streak, and high anxiety. Teaching is about interacting with people</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-lparen"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-lparen">(students).</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> The only way to get better in it is to listen to feedback: formal and informal, verbal and behavioral, solicited and spontaneous. Which means that you are sort of supposed to care about what other people think about you. Well, technically you are supposed to care about 1) how good your teaching is, and 2) what other non-student people think about how good your teaching is, which is not exactly the same. But because attitude towards you affects attitude towards your teaching, and because at this point you probably identify with your teaching, and because you are constantly</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“plugged</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> into” this stream of feedback from students, it is a breeding ground for anxiety and impostor syndrome. Which makes you spend 150% of your time on teaching. Which is, again, a trap, and does not even help you with becoming a better teacher, necessarily.</span></div>
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<span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z">Of course I was told all that. I wish somebody was more tough with me though, when I was only starting. Some people told me that</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“having</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> 1 day for research is a good target”, but some said:</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z s-ldquo"> </span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z h-ldquo">“forget</span><span class=" author-d-iz88z86z86za0dz67zz78zz78zz74zz68zjz80zz71z9iz90z9z84zl4z88zz66ziz72zz87zz75zz78zupz77zz78zz70zvz88z8z67ziz79zz67zdz73z5z85zwmz74zz68z"> about doing any research during the semester”. These conflicting messages made me really confused about whether having a research day is even possible. I’ve seen it on some people’s calendars, but not on others. I wish somebody had pulled me away, shook me a bit by the shoulders, and told me in a no-nonsense way: fight for this day! Keep one day sacred. Don’t do any teaching on this day. If you start prepping in the morning, you won’t be able to stop. You day will be gone. Don’t do it. Contain it! I’m not sure I would have listened, but maybe it would have helped ;)</span></div>
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khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-54029933202202956252017-10-30T12:12:00.000-04:002017-10-30T12:12:03.586-04:00Why I like intelligent machines spying on me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last week on Reddit people repeatedly freaked out about artificial intelligence machines (Facebook, Google, Amazon) spying on us, humans. Listening to keywords we utter through phone apps that run in the background; inferring who our friends are based on WiFi networks we connect to, and so on.<br />
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And I have to admit that <i>in principle </i>I actually like the idea of advertisers spying on me. For two very different reasons.<br />
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One, I am a big fan of targeted advertisement. The day when Instagram finally figured that I'm not buying a new luxury car, but instead started advertising books, I celebrated. I actually tried to pat the AI on the back, to trick it into showing even more books-related ads (I'm not sure it worked, but I kept promoted posts on the screen for a bit longer, as I think it tracks it, and then also clicked on some every now and then). Because I'd really much rather stare at book covers or fancy musical instruments than at cars and fashion items. I'll never buy either, but hey books are so much more enjoyable! And as long as ads are unavoidable, at least let's pick the ones we care about.<br />
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Second, I think the privacy is dead, but the society is in denial and does not realize that. It's a huge topic, and I have 5-6 draft posts saved that I never have time to finish, but basically the concept of privacy as we knew it is gone quite some time ago. We shed parts of our identity all the time, and it only takes some time and effort to figure out everything. Have you heard of this artist who collected hairs on the floor of Grand Central station in NYC, ran DNA tests on them, and then reconstructed faces of their owners? It was more of an art project, because we are not <i>yet </i>that good in facial reconstruction from DNA, but in principle it's quite doable. In 2-3 years if not now. Or have you heard about how it's possible to ID the driver based on how they turn, accelerate and break? The information that is recorded by any GPS device with a built-in accelerometer (aka smartphone). Privacy does not exist, yet there are no social or legal protections for the new world in which privacy does not exist. The sooner we realize it, the better. And in a crooked way, Facebook spying on people may accelerate changes in the society that would protect individuals from impacts of sudden exposure.<br />
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Again, that's a huge topic, but if you think of it, the main risk of living in post-privacy world is that some forces (your government, police, health insurance company) can access your life much easier than you can access theirs, and has much more to gain. It's the asymmetry of power that is dangerous, not the absence of privacy itself. Once we realize that everything that is hidden <i>will be revealed</i>, we have at least some chance of making sure it won't destroy us. It's like with Equifax breach: the breach is not the problem (some leak was bound to happen sooner or later), the problem is that our whole lives can be ruined by a single stupid number. Don't shoot the messenger, you know? And I think in this case Facebook and Google are, in a way, the messengers.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-15240353023587847112017-09-01T23:44:00.002-04:002017-09-01T23:44:30.866-04:00Books: "Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Everybody in the sciences have apparently read this book long ago; and I know of a professor who made all their students read it. So I felt a bit ashamed not having read it, and had big expectations about it.<br />
<br />
Well, it's a great book, and I'm happy that it happened to be about scientists.<br />
<br />
It's not a good "book about scientists" though.<br />
<br />
I think it's an important distinction (and a horrible wording). My "liking" or "not liking" this book, or "recommending" vs. not recommending it to anybody (say, a student) would really depend on this framing.<br />
<br />
I mean, there's genre f iction, and every now and then there's a person in fiction who happens to be a cook, or a policemen. This fact on itself would not make it a book about cooking, or about police, would it? "Indiana Jones" franchise is not really about archaeologists (even though the protagonist happens to claim this profession the calling of medicine), and "The adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is not really a book about the calling of medicine, even though one of the main characters is very much a doctor. And then there are books and movies about medical doctors specifically, that are created as such, to cater to the interest of the public, or maybe to ignite this interest. And you can discuss whether a certain portrayal of a certain profession is truthful, positive, negative, etc., which is one sort of a discussion; or you can discuss the plot, the soap opera, and whether the characters are psychologically plausible, which is a completely different discussion. These are two different dimensions, and a book or a movie can be great in one, and horrible in the other, or vice versa.<br />
<br />
So my main trouble with "The Lab Girl" is that, while I totally loved the book, I feel a bit uncomfortable that it was picked by the scientific community, and transplanted from one category to another. From a moving memoir of a person who also happens to be a scientist, it was made into a book about scientists. I totally see the temptation: for one, there are not that many touching, human, vulnerable books that would truthfully describe scientific life. Science is often present in a cartoonish form in scientific fiction, apocalyptic thrillers, or books about political conspiracies, but psychological, literary books about sciences are rather rare. Second, books about women in science, written by women in science, are not that frequent, to put it mildly, and very much in need. Third, the topic of mental health and existential struggle, vulnerability, and success, are all extremely important ones, and ones traditionally shunned and downplayed by the scientific society. This book suddenly filled quite a few niches that were under-occupied, and it resonated with readers.<br />
<br />
But at the same time, I feel deeply uncomfortable with the idea of normalizing some of the messages of this book: that science requires special sacrifices, that it demands from its followers not just monastic existence (which would be bad enough), but sort of transcendental, esoteric transformation, incompatible with free time, with family, with life, with pretty much everything. Science as a calling, a flame that consumes you, burning from within, the insatiable quest for knowledge, and so on and so forth. A field that you can enter only after being hazed by your elders, because if they don't torture you now, you won't be ready for the tortures of real life (sorry for the spoiler, I hope it's a minor one). I hate it. I mean, for every extreme feeling there exists a person who can live this hype and be happy, or normal, or functioning, so I gladly accept that there are people in the world that feel like that. But I would hate to live this kind of life, and I don't want any student ever think that to be a scientist they need to experience these extremes. Ideally, I want students to be mistaken that science can be a normal routine profession, maybe a bit demanding, maybe a bit under-payed and under-appreciated, all things considering, but still just one profession out of many, that just happens to be also be fun. Because I suspect that one of the ways to make scientific word less torturous is to raise a generation of people who would expect it to be normal, and demand this normality from those around them.<br />
<br />
To sum up, I really liked this book, but I regret presenting it to a student last year without finishing it first. I hope we'll have more books written by scientist that would mention science casually, between love affairs and problems with teen-aged kids. Books that would use scientific metaphors, and describe real scientific anecdotes as a backdrop for the main story. So that this lovely book could become one of many, but not necessarily the one.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-5888967911308452482017-08-31T12:34:00.004-04:002017-08-31T12:34:52.102-04:00New personal page, and a review of new Google Sites<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Google has being slowly promoting their new Google Sites for about a year now, and recently I've moved most of my website to this new platform. Behold:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://sites.google.com/view/khakhalin">https://sites.google.com/view/khakhalin</a><br />
<br />
Pros:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>It looks really pretty, with these large sliding images on top and everything</li>
<li>Looks perfect both on a wide screen and a mobile phone (old google sites couldn't cope with a phone screen at all). I was critical of this feature at first, as I thought they were pushing the phone layout a bit too aggressively, but it turns out that I was just formatting it wrong. If you just add one block of text below another, sure, it will look poor, kind of like <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">mobile wikipedia</a>, when opened on a computer. But what you should do is add columns, or put images on the side. Create a matrix. In a mobile format it will nicely reshape into a column-vector, so that's the best of both worlds.</li>
<li>Intuitive interface: it totally feels like Google was inspired by the recent development of <a href="https://paper.dropbox.com/">Paper by Dropbox</a> (which is awesome by the way), as the interface is clean, clear, and easy to use. It may be a bit harder to move large blocks around, but still possible.</li>
<li>If you know html, you'll appreciate that the blocks you add follow <div> mentality, and there's a logic behind div-embedding. While it is not shown to the user explicitly, if you ever worked with divs, you'll immediately recognize the structure (and beauty) of it.</li>
<li>I like the little magic thing they do when you put images behind text (they adjust the color of the font and the lightness of the image)</li>
</ul>
<div>
Cons:</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>For now they don't support tables, and I need tables to publish protocols. But I think the Google team promised to eventually introduce them.</li>
<li>For now they only allow 1 level of subpages, but this thing they explicitly promised in one of their blog posts, so it should, theoretically, come live within about a year.</li>
<li>Very few styles for now, and it's impossible to create your own styles, but then again I think it will be changed in the future.</li>
<li>Impossible to attach files to the page, which was a very nice feature in old sites, both for hosting large-resolution images, and for uploading pdfs. I'm not sure whether they plan to implement it; I hope they would, otherwise I'll have to use external ftp storage for files.</li>
</ul>
<div>
But overall it definitely wins over Wordpress and Weebly, in my opinion, and hey it's free!</div>
</div>
</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-54324476260455386532017-08-17T12:37:00.002-04:002017-08-17T12:37:35.608-04:00On race and teaching props<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In one of my classes, I run a short lab on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_transfer_illusion#Rubber_hand_illusion">rubber hand illusion</a>, so naturally when I ran it for the first time I was in need of some fake rubber hands. I figured that for the illusion to work well, I'll need hands that are at least somewhat similar to real hands real people have. So my intention was to buy a bunch of small hands, a bunch of large hands, some light-skinned hands, and some dark-skinned hands. About 20% of our students are dark-skinned, and I guessed it would be silly to make them work with pale pink rubber hands.<br />
<br />
(I think there is actually a study that showed that the illusion still works if the hand is of a different skin tone, or of a different size and shape than your own, but that it does not work that effectively. But I wanted to just demonstrate the illusion, and so needed the most robust effect.)<br />
<br />
I went online to order some hands, and lo and behold... There are no fake brown hands on sale.<br />
<br />
Look for yourself, here is the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=fake+hand&safe=active&source=lnms&tbm=isch">google images search for "Fake hand"</a>. Here's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?field-keywords=rubber+hand">amazon search</a>. All hands are light pink, not even tanned. Isn't it weird?<br />
<br />
Why is it so? About third of all fake hands are visibly zombified, so maybe it's considered a faux pas to manufacture dark-skinned zombie parts? That would be weird, but who knows, people are weird. Another third of hands are non-zombified Halloween props. Don't African American celebrate Halloween? Again, I don't know, I'm a foreigner, I have no idea. Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. I'm sure some do. Still no Halloween hands for dark-skinned people.<br />
<br />
But the last third of fake hands are actually props for different kinds of beauty industries. There are "nail mannequin hands" (google it) that are used to showcase nail art, then there are training mannequins that nail polishers and such use to practice, and finally hand mannequins to show jewelry in window stores. And if you google them, all of them are pink - with the exception of jewelry hand mannequins that also come in pitch-black (that looks cool and artsy, but totally unrealistic). And I'm pretty sure dark-skinned people use all sorts of nail beauty products, and rings, and manicure.<br />
<br />
But there are no naturally dark-skinned fake hands on the market, period.<br />
<br />
I actually thought I found one, which was ridiculously expensive compared to "white hands", and ordered it, but it turned out that the photo was bad, and then hand was barely tanned. Maybe a bit brownish, but definitely not what I was looking for.<br />
<br />
The practical outcome for the students that day was that the dark-skinned students had to work with weaker effects than light-skinned ones, and were also reminded of a lot of interesting social aspects of race in science that I totally did not want them to be reminded of on that particular day. Of course I told them the whole story of hand-hunting before the lab, and we all laughed about it in a sad wise laugh of a person who've seen worse things in their lives, but I was still annoyed and disappointed by the whole situation.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-84808840492883819462017-05-24T16:05:00.000-04:002017-05-24T16:05:11.757-04:00Books: A God that could be real by Nancy Abrams<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
About a year ago I entered my e-mail in a giveaway for a book on theLibraryThing web-site. The idea of these give-aways is that you kind of promise to read and review the book in exchange for a free copy. And then I suddenly won a free copy! So I found myself reading it.<br /><br />The book is called "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/God-That-Could-Real-Spirituality/dp/0807075957">A god that could be real</a>" by Nancy Ellen Abrams. The topic of it, to put it simply, is to reinvent and re-envision the concept of God that would not contradict modern cosmology, yet would also be an active personally engage-able God, a type one could conceivably pray to, as opposed to a cold rational impotent deistic construct. So Abrams takes a chisel and starts working on the clumsy block of our standard God-related preconceptions (such as omniscience and omnipotence), trying to get to the believable core, while not destroying the piece entirely. To summarize her message in one sentence, the author revisits post-Hegelian dialectics and applies it to religion, defining God as a truly (but dialectically) existing teleological representation of meta-humanity.<br /><br />My biggest problem with this book is that Abrams rejects, ignores, and sometimes plain hides from the very idea of Platonism, be it the original Greek version, the Jewish interpretation of it (something in the style of the Gospel of John), or Hellenistic and Medieval versions. She chooses to understand all key theological words, such as "to create" (as applied to the Universe) in a very practical, matter-of-fact way, which then obviously leads to contradictions. But she pretends that these purely materialistic (as opposed to idealistic) interpretations are the only possibly ones. Which is of course not true.<br /><br />In a similar fashion, she ignores, or politely dismisses, the mystical tradition. Her book is dedicated to the active process of defining and redefining God, which contradicts the very central message of most mystical traditions (from St. Symeon the New Theologican, to St. John of the Cross, and early Hassidic rabbis). While not all authors spell it out explicitly, the core message of Judeo-Christian mysticism is that not only one cannot define God, but even more strongly, it is not possible to formulate a logical predicate, a true/false statement that would contain God as an object, as God is not an object of our reality. In mystical monotheism, God is fundamentally a subject, staying outside of our world (and in most extreme versions - outside of our logic as well). God is the subject in the sense that s/he makes our world exist; God exists us. But we cannot ensnare God in our statements or trap God in our definitions, however clever they might seem (see apophatic theology).<br /><br />Abrams ignores, or rather dismisses with a half-a-paragraph-long hand-wave this entire stratum, and entire school of thought. Which is annoying, as it means that in order to test and taste the validity of any of her statements I need to first translate them into their weaker versions, and only then think about them. Because of course these weaker versions are very possible: the whole concept of angels (messengeres) in Judaism, and then Christianity, as well as related concepts of Metatron, Son of Man, Messiah, prophets, Wisdom of God, etc. - all grow from this very same tension that made Abrams write her book: the tension between the intuition of God as infinitely "another", and the intuition of God's full presence in one's existence here and now. The impossible leap through this void was again and again reinterpreted by religious thinkers as different kinds of messengers, projections, incarnations and deputies, from the Angel wrestling with Jacob, and to the concept of Church as the body of God. Abrams is not the first person to fight this very fight.<br /><br />Overall, it took me about half a year to finish this book. Every now and then, feeling guilty, I would try to pick it up, but it just would not go. I do hope that it could make a more pleasant read to a non-scientist (as it talks a lot about science), or a non-believer (as it talks a lot about God), but if you happen to be interested in both religion and science, then this book may feel too slow for you. At the same time, the book is definitely thought-provoking. It contains several interesting, poetic metaphors that were a pleasure to read, and a nice discussion of physical scales that could be welcome in any classroom. It has some really nice material, but it did not quite work for me as a book, and I definitely cannot subscribe to its main argument.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-31406963781489278072017-05-22T23:24:00.001-04:002017-05-23T10:12:55.631-04:00Against economic growth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One thing that really annoys, or maybe even frightens me, is economic growth. Because when growth becomes a goal, and not a means towards a goal, you are dealing with cancer. Not an organism, not a healthy tissue, but a cancerous outgrowth.<br />
<br />
I'm fine with change. It may be Buddhist, or it may be nervous, anxious desire to change everything again and again, but while it may be empty, at lest it is not self-destructive.<br />
<br />
Stasis, stability, conservatism, tradition are also fine. Perhaps dead a little, but fine. I like it.<br />
<br />
Even improvement is fine, as improvement, efficiency, can still be self-contained. If I learn to do my job better and better, I can end up freeing some time to walk around the block, or play a banjo.<br />
<br />
But growth is self-destructive.<br />
<br />
And unfortunately it seems that our society is addicted to growth.<br />
<br />
But then maybe I'm wrong, as I know positively nothing about economics.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-79444416285781159662017-05-12T11:27:00.000-04:002017-05-12T11:27:02.860-04:00Small linguistic victories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was talking at the board, describing some imaginary scientist that does some imaginary experiments, and I referred to this scientist as "she".<br />
<br />
This sure does not sound like an achievement: of course there are women scientists! My science classes are typically between 80% and 100% female after all. But for me every time it feels like a small breakthrough, for a very different reason. The thing is, while I teach only in English, inside my head I still think a little bit in Russian, at least to some extent. And in Russian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender">all nouns are gendered</a> (they are either masculine, feminine, or neutral). So for me, at a very intuitive, subconscious level, all cells are "she", while all neurons are "he". Neurons are dudes, cells are lasses, while nuclei don't care - nuclei are "it" (neutral). For me, mitochondria are always maternal, and not just because they carry mDNA and can prove maternal lineage, but because they are feminine, while receptors and channels are clearly masculine. It is probably ridiculous, but it's true, and follows the patterns described in the literature (there are some famous studies, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/culture-conscious/201209/masculine-or-feminine-and-why-it-matters">one on bridges</a>, and <a href="https://benthamopen.com/contents/pdf/TOALJ/TOALJ-1-68.pdf">one on kitchen utensils</a>)<br />
<br />
And so, "of course" (sarcasm here) "a scientist" (учёный, ucheny) is masculine in Russian. But it's worse than even that: "a scientist" in Russian, while grammatically a noun, does not read or sound like a typical noun, but has all signs of an verbal adjective that is used as a noun. It's somewhat similar to English nouns like "grown-up", "initiate" or "trainee": essentially a "grown one", "initiated one", or "trained one" respectively. So in Russian the word for "scientist" is literally "the learned one"; and this "one" is grammatically male. In Russian, "A scientist" etymologically means "the learned male". Only think of it. "The learned male!". It's bizarre!<br />
<br />
It is a very curious case, and seems to be almost an exception. Most words for professions and occupations in Russian are not like that: "a teacher", "a professor", "a student" are all normal nouns; some are masculine but can be used for females without a grammatical collapse; some have both masculine and feminine forms. All of them are more or less OK. "A scientist", however, totally hurts my brain. On several occasions, when I tried to make my writing in Russian more gender-inclusive, I was attacked by Russian speakers (women and men alike!) for ruining the grammar. Because if you write in Russian something like "When a scientist is tired, she takes a break", it short-circuits the grammar. It reads like "When a well-learned male man is tired, she takes a break", which is seriously weird.<br />
<br />
And no, there's no "learned female" form for this word (like for German der Professor / die Professorin). If you try to forge a "feminine form", it sounds very unusual, and is completely unheard of. I gather with some effort it should be possible to introduce a "feminine version" by force, kind of how notation "they" was re-introduced in English for the purpose of gender inclusiveness, but so far nobody bothered to even start playing with these possibilities. And probably the society will be very resistant to changes like that, for quite a while. And even then, the controversy would probably remain, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_neutrality_in_languages_with_grammatical_gender#German">as it remains in German</a>, as having two different words for male and female people in a profession is a bit weird.<br />
<br />
But in my private life, for my private brain, this whole strange situation means that while I work mostly with female scientists, it is still curiously hard for me to refer to an imaginary "placeholder" scientist as "she" in speech. Because grammar representation in late life bilinguals is weird. Even after years of training, it feels that I have to consciously override some circuit in the Broca area to make it happen.<br />
<br />
If you are a native English speaker and cannot relate to this story at all, try to imagine that you learned a language where the words for "scissors" or "pants" are singular, and not plural, as they are in English, and you now need to say something to the effect "my scissors is red", or "give me a pants". Would not it feel weird? I bet it would! Even though you would <i>know </i>perfectly well what you are talking about, and how to properly say it, you would still have to consciously override something in your brain to use "trousers" as a singular.<br />
<br />
So, here you go: small linguistic victories.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-46436796418346237332017-05-09T14:22:00.001-04:002017-05-09T14:25:24.087-04:00On some differences between industry and academia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Are there differences in the "workplace politics" in academia, compared to that in the corporate world? Is academic politics really worse than that in the industry? I think the answer is "yes": academic politics is indeed more painful than corporate politics, both emotionally, and in terms of being more destructive for the organization. Here are some thoughts about why it could be the case.<br />
<br />
Compared to the corporate world, there are three unpleasant things about academic politics. One is that there is no clear common goal. In the corporate world at any moment of time usually there's a well defined goal (profit, saving, market expansion, sales, loss reduction etc.), and if something doesn't work, it least in theory, you can always stand up and ask the team to relate back to the goal. Look, we are not doing ourselves any good by getting involved in THIS, because it does not move us towards our main goal for this year. And then supposedly everybody readjust.<br />
<br />
In academia, large-scale goals are almost never articulated, so every person comes up with goals of their own, and there is no clear way to figure out what do we want as a team. Basically, except in situations of emergency, we never want anything collectively, as a team. Sometimes the majority of people happen to have their goals aligned, but it always happens spontaneously, not because we are explicitly required, or want to work together. I guess the whole mythology about tenure and academic freedom does not help here as well. People are so proud of the concept of academic freedom that they basically flip out every time somebody tells them what to do. It's very much a "don't tread on me" mentality. How dare you tell me how to teach! What speakers to invite! What research to do! People are very protective of their freedom, which is great, but it makes things harder in so many cases, as they may become protective of their freedom "just in case", preemptively, before any actual conflict arises.<br />
<br />
Another, related complication, as there is no culture of escalation and arbitrage. In the corporate world if you say "do it", and another person or function says "don't do it", you can always escalate to the management, have a meeting, and agree on the priorities. There is typically a procedure for resolving conflicts, and there is a clear power, so when sales and IT have a conflict, they just calculate the costs, have a meeting, put these costs together, and delegate the decision up. In academia the structure is much flatter, the responsibilities are less clear, and there is no culture of escalation. If you would write to the dean about a conflict with another faculty, it would be perceived as an insult and open war, not as a working moment that happens literally every other week. Which means that pretty much conflicts of interest can sit there for years without ever being resolved.<br />
<br />
Finally, the last issue is that academics really like to think, analyze, and look into details, and really don't like making decisions. Which is the exact opposite of the corporate world: there people usually work against a pressure of time, so they know (or are taught hard way) that in many cases it's more important to make a decision, any decision, than over-eanalyze and procrastinate. So, at least in my experience, in the corporate world when you call a meeting, present your analysis, and no obvious red flags are identified, typically people vote for a "go" decision, and immediately send a proposal to the management. In academia typically nobody would believe your analysis, because they will feel that they need to do it themselves (not that they have the time of course), and then several hypothetical reservations will be voiced, and "what if" scenarios will be described, and a few people in the room will have some strong reservations they'll never voice (because, again, there is no culture of conflict resolution), and then everybody would agree to give it another thought, and maybe reconvene in half a year, or maybe form a committee, and give it another look, so forth and so on. There is no decision culture, and things can drag forever, even when people are generally sympathetic to the cause, just because they don't have a habit of working small things out in order to push something big forward.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-61428187235853476452017-05-01T11:02:00.002-04:002017-05-01T11:02:44.216-04:00Cheat sheet for a busy professor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; margin-bottom: 0.357143em; padding: 0px;">
I was asked by a colleague to share some hacks and cheats that make life of a SLAC professor easier. Here's a quick list I came up with:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; margin-bottom: 0.357143em; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; margin-bottom: 0.357143em; padding: 0px;">
Grading:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;">
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Challenge every assignment: is it really needed? What purpose does it serve? Would a shorter / easier to grade assignment serve this purpose better?</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Challenge the number of assignments: can you remove one? Don't create busywork.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Taking feedback is hard, so there's no point in critiquing more than one point at a time. If aspect A needs to be improved the most, don't even comment on aspect B for a while.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Students don't understand complicated rubrics, so don't use complicated rubrics.</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; margin-bottom: 0.357143em; margin-top: 0.357143em; padding: 0px;">
Teaching:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;">
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sometimes you don't need to prepare for classes in-depth, as most important confusions lie on the surface, and improvising with the blackboard, in dialogue with the students, may actually be more useful for them.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">But if you need to prepare, prepare well so that you could reuse it fully next year.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">If something didn't work, or you have an idea, write it down <em style="font-weight: inherit; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">now</em>; your future you (in a year) will be very grateful.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Use your own work / things you think about in your research at least once a semester; it makes it easier for you, and more fun for them.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Don't be afraid to teach fun topics instead of "useful topics"; "standard courses" are overrated. Your goal is not to bring them from point A to point B, but to encourage them to get there themselves. Emotion is more important than content or skill-drills.</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; margin-bottom: 0.357143em; margin-top: 0.357143em; padding: 0px;">
Classroom:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;">
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Push as much work as you can to the students. Use things like reflective writing, discussions, pair-share, peer-review. Make them submit questions before class instead of generating all questions for them. Bounce their questions back to them. It so happens that most techniques that are proven to be more effective in teaching are also <em style="font-weight: inherit; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;">easier</em> for the teacher, even if they feel risky and weird. Learn the best practices from good books, and use them to your advantage.</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; margin-bottom: 0.357143em; margin-top: 0.357143em; padding: 0px;">
Research:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;">
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Integrate research with teaching in all ways possible.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Use labs for pilot experiments, to troubleshoot your methods.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Use honors theses for pilot experiments, to generate some data.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Bend upper college courses towards your current interests, to give you an excuse to read a few more reviews / primary papers.</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; margin-bottom: 0.357143em; margin-top: 0.357143em; padding: 0px;">
Time management:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.357143em 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;">
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Schedule in chunks of few hours; don't break chunks. Don't give in to temptation to use these chunks for urgent matters. If it's research time, do research.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Do only things that are either important (even if they are unpleasant), or that you like to do (even if it feels that you're indulging yourself). Don't do kind-of-useful things that you don't like. Nobody cares about them anyway, and they drain your willpower stamina. Only critical strikes + fun stuff. That's what makes the difference.</li>
<li style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.42857em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Use some kind of a GTD-inspired time / e-mail / project management system. Google inbox seems promising, but I haven't used it yet. I use Google Keep, with a note for each project / class, and a checkbox for each action step.</li>
</ul>
</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-36022978516757128142017-04-26T11:00:00.003-04:002017-04-26T12:23:03.658-04:00Safe spaces<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I actually like the idea of safe spaces in college. But not because they allow students to hide from the world; on the contrary, I like them because they offer a training ground.<br />
<br />
In a way, the only reason we would need safe spaces at all, is because we are engaged in unsafe activities. Risky discussions, dangerous thoughts. Students deserve "safe spaces": classes that are designed so carefully, and so kindly, that they can explore conflicting opinions without the risk of repercussions. <b>Students need to have a chance to explore merits of controversial ideas</b>, ask problematic questions, all while knowing that they are covered by some kind of a "blanket intellectual insurance".<br />
<br />
(And by the way, it does not feel like colleges offer these safe spaces right now. At least here at Bard students seem to feel very unsafe when controversial topics are brought up. It's a challenge. Discussions don't happen; everything just shuts down.)<br />
<br />
Think about it. Questioning Aristotle does not mean that you disagree with Aristotle in your private life, as a private citizen, and subscribe to, say, the philosophy of Plato (let's assume it is out of vogue for solid moral reasons). It means literally what it means: that you are currently, temporarily, engaged in questioning Aristotle. It is your assignment, perhaps, to question the validity of Aristotle's logic, or his claims, or the practical consequences of his thought, and so that is what you do. Because you were assigned to explore this position. Once the class is over, you are free to go your way, and be as Epicurean or Cynical as you wish, but right now the topic of the day is "questioning Aristotle", and so students in class should (ideally) feel comfortable enough to do so.<br />
<br />
Safe spaces are good. A gym with mats is a safe space - because it has mats. The fencing room with masks and bending sabers is a safe space as well. The safety harness on a rock climber is, well, exactly the thing that turns their climbing practice a (relatively) safe exercise. The same is true for college. It is an intellectual harness, an intellectual mat; a mask perhaps (rich metaphors here). It is absolutely necessary.<br />
<br />
And once the "safe space" is there, we can use them to discuss morally questionable topics and opinions. Because <b>we need to discuss morally questionable opinions</b>, it is our civil duty! If we stop questioning the morality of our opinions, or any opinions for that matter; if we believe in them unthinkingly; if we don't weigh them on the poorly defined intuitive and intellectual scales of morality, we are doomed. Opinions exist to be questioned, ethically, intellectually, morally; and where else if not in college would one practice this skill. To stay tactful and kind against all odds; to experience anger, disgust, and indignation without letting them breach on the surface, but using them as fuel for deeper thought and even more careful, deliberate dialogue. Not a debate (debates are ultimately evil, for a different reason), not as an attempt to win, to prove, to break, or impress somebody. But as a slow, sincere, painstaking attempt to establish a working relationship with a different opinion. And maybe (but not necessarily), arrive at a compromise, or maybe (again, not necessarily), reject one of the opinions as unproductive: the outcomes may differ, but the process is the same.<br />
<br />
With that, hail to safe spaces, and to morally questionable discussions in the classroom! They are absolutely necessary.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-43208048816626151042017-04-25T14:57:00.003-04:002017-04-25T14:57:56.662-04:00More on scientific bottlenecks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you think of it, even during "peaceful times" academia is full of bottlenecks. I was on a job market just 3 years ago, and I remember this feeling very well: you get trained for some 12 years (feels long!), and now you pretty much have 2 years (feels very short!) to make a jump to the next level (professorship), with something like only 2-3 attempts per year. So about 6 attempts overall! If you don't make it, you are mentally prepared to quit. Because by that time you are probably exhausted, and you are probably in your mid-30s, and you want a family, a place to live, and the clock is ticking.<br />
<br />
So a person arrives at this landing pier and waits for a ferry to come, for a job to open, at mercy of random luck of somebody retiring. Somebody who used to teach exactly the courses this new person can teach; exactly in the field they are interested in; and in the region where they are OK to live. They are waiting there, like Frogger on a moving log, with this very limited time to make the leap. Because after that both the guidelines for postdoc employment, and personal patience, and the faith of potential employers would probably run out.<br />
<br />
This bottleneck of possibility feels completely ridiculous. I am sure there are great postdocs our there who can teach courses A and B, but we now need somebody who would teach C and D, and be a good teacher, and a good researcher, and be fine with moving to our neck of the woods. If you multiply all these probabilities, you end up with a ridiculously low number of qualified candidates. Call if "fit", or call it "luck", but it almost feels like a numerical problem. A candidate may be great, and the probability of them finding a job may be quite high, but there are only that many years to try, and only that many openings each year. It's a rather cruel system, if you think of it.<br />
<br />
Especially considering that postdocs cannot hibernate like bears from one job season to another.<br />
<br />
(And even if they could, they'd loose "research momentum" while in hibernation, so it would not have worked anyways).<br />
<br />
I'm guessing good mentorship would really make a difference in this situation, as a mentor could help a candidate to understand what part of their CV or application package to boost, how to hone their research talk, how to get "street credibility" if they are applying to an adjacent field (say, a computational neuroscientist to a computer science position). But it seems that most postdocs don't have this mentorship for some reason.<br />
<br />
By the way, that's also the main reason I think age-restricted scholarships are evil. It's bad enough that everybody die, and get older, and are scared of missing the Frogger-train. Adding some artificial deadlines to this story, and making people who were on a maternity leave, or changed careers, or served in the army, - making them explain how they are not as old as they seem to be - that's just plain evil.<br />
<br />
I guess time to join some support group, and maybe support or mentor somebody somewhere, to pay it forward and dispel the gloom.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-61082200424172427472017-04-24T11:22:00.001-04:002017-04-24T11:23:03.110-04:00Scientific funding<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It seems to me that most people don't realize how much science can be hurt by fluctuations in scientific funding. And that's because most people don't realize how slow and vulnerable "scientific process" is.<br />
<br />
I mean, if I didn't know better, I'd probably assumed that money to science is like fuel to a car. You give it a bit more gas, you move forward faster. You take your foot from a pedal, the car goes a bit slower. With this logic, a dip in funding would be just a dip. There was a surge during Obama administration, there could be a dip now, not a big deal, right?<br />
<br />
Wrong, sadly. The nature of science is that it relies on thousands of individual people acquiring idiosyncratic skills in a quest for some highly fragmented knowledge. It takes about 12 years to develop a professional scientist: 12 years of manual painful nurturing handover from one person to another. It's quite an investment! And only after these ~12 years this person is ready to inherit one thread of research, leading in one unique direction.<br />
<br />
And that's exactly what makes dips in funding so devastating: it would cut through these unique threads and kill them, tear them off, strangling scientific progress. People are not bears: they cannot hibernate with their labs through the funding crisis, to start from the same place in four years from now. They also cannot just start doing everything 10 times slower (and cheaper) as lizards on a cold morning. They either run their labs (paying salaries, breeding animals, pumping air through HVAC systems etc.), or they stop, and this particular thread of research collapses. The running costs are pretty high. And people need to eat and feed families, so without funding they change careers, or move to other countries, but either way they disappear from science. If a limb gets ischemic - it dies.<br />
<br />
Therefore a decrease in scientific funding is not at all like trying to save money by not eating out for a month. You can stop eating out, and you can start eating out again; that's not a big deal. But a decrease in scientific funding, for a taxpayer, is more like not feeding their dog for a year, or not paying their mortgage. When in a year you change your mind, the dog is dead, and the house is taken by the bank. And while it's technically possible to get a new house and a new dog, it suddenly becomes insanely more difficult, much more expensive, and takes way too long.<br />
<br />
And for a government, to stop paying for science, is not just about not continuing the work of their predecessors, or correcting their plans in some way. It's more like consciously burning everything their predecessors built, in a pyre. Which is thing not unheard of, obviously, but at least in some cases (say, in case of medical insurance) this ritual pyre is at least advertised as such, and people have at least a chance of forming an opinion about it. There is some discourse, some discussion. In case of scientific funding, I feel, this discussion is largely absent, which is particularly troubling.<br />
<br />
Another argument for the importance of scientific literacy, I guess.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-43522118307366151742017-04-04T10:15:00.000-04:002017-04-04T10:28:29.778-04:00Diversity statements and academic freedom<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Some scholars (?) from Oregon have recently published a manifesto that calls "Diversity statements" that are now required for all newhires in the Oregon State University a violation of academic freedom. Does not it sound curious? Diversity statements violate academic freedom. That's surely something new!<br />
<br />
Here's where I read about it:<br />
<a href="http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/faculty-diversity-statements-are-called-threats-to-academic-freedom/117536">http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/faculty-diversity-statements-are-called-threats-to-academic-freedom/117536</a><br />
<br />
And here's the full version of the "report" (essentially, a manifesto):<br />
<a href="http://www.oregonscholars.org/wp-content/uploads/OAS_8Mar2017_DiversityStatements_Rev1.pdf">http://www.oregonscholars.org/wp-content/uploads/OAS_8Mar2017_DiversityStatements_Rev1.pdf</a><br />
<br />
In short, the logic goes as following: Diversity statements invite people to comment on some sensitive topics, such as gender equality, LGBT issues, racial politics, and so on. Presumably, if a person does not share left-wing values, they won't be able to write a "smashing" diversity statement, and thus will be discriminated against. And that would be a violation of academic freedom.<br />
<br />
On the surface it sounds kind of logical, but at the same time I feel it is as divorced from reality as it can possibly get. Diversity statements are not supposed to be an expression of one's agenda, neither political nor philosophical. A diversity statement generally serves two rather modest purposes:<br />
<br />
1. It allows the candidate to present some of their redeeming features that are traditionally not put on a standard academic CVs, and that are hard to quantify, but that make them a more interesting person. Maybe they had an unusual period in life, a unique experience, some curious background. Anything that makes them less of a cookie-cutter clone of a perfect student. For the hiring committee, these unique experiences are a promise of some flexibility, at intellectual and personal level, and an opportunity for strategic team-building. It's nice to know that as a team we'll be able to better represent the complexity of the world around us; that we are not a set of 12 identical twins that will hate each other within a month! This makes the "Diversity statement" pretty much the only part of the application package where one can spin their personal story, that could otherwise be perceived as a weaknesses, as a strength. For example, you went to grad school really late because you were doing something else for 10 years, and now you have fewer publications behind your belt? Here's your chance to explain that. There are probably other people around that can relate to this story, so it would be helpful to have a prof on the team who knows how this side of life works.<br />
<br />
2. Perhaps more importantly, the diversity statement is an opportunity for the candidate to show that they thought about issues of inclusiveness in the classroom, and have at least some ideas, even if rudimentary, about ways in which students may be different; how it can affect their education, and what can be done about it. Nobody is perfect, everything is highly personal, and I am quite convinced that by definition there is no "perfect" diversity statement, but it's an extra opportunity to guess whether the candidate is thinking about these issues at all. Whether they are humble of heart, ready to change if needed, and are driven by kindness. What you don't want is to hire somebody who only believes in tall athletic brunets (or short nerdy blondes, it doesn't matter what profile we are talking about), and is only prepared to work with this type of students. Hiring a person like that would be a huge disservice to the students.<br />
<br />
What I am trying to say is that the bar is pretty low. One: be a human. Two: be ready to change, and try to be kind. That's the crux of it; the rest is a commentary.<br />
<br />
Moreover, most diversity statements I've seen were written so poorly that writing a passable one should be a really low bar. Gosh, they are usually even worse than teaching statements! And teaching statements are always bad, even in a teaching school; probably because teaching is a trade with little theory, and lots of experience and art aspects to it, which makes it hard to write a meaningful one-pager about these things. But while teaching statements are always pretty bad, diversity statements are even worse. On this background, any thinking human who is not completely evil should be able to do a decent job.<br />
<br />
Which brings me to my last point. Actually, as I think of it now, it should not be too hard to write a good diversity statement even if you are covered with tattoos of red stripy star-covered elephants and yellow hissing snakes from toes to shoulders. Because ultimately this whole concern about right thinkers not being represented in academia is a concern about diversity!! (They don't use the word diversity in the "report", as I guess it would have been too ironic, but that's what they actually seem to mean when they say "academic freedom"). A person who can relate to conservative students, and who can describe that kindly and thoughtfully, would be a great asset on any team. They just need to stay practical and write about teaching and work, and not about their treasured philosophy. (Because if they work in political science or gender studies, they can write about it in their research statement, and if they don't - it's irrelevant, exactly for academic freedom reasons). Just think about inclusive classroom, and how you'd make sure that you make your students succeed even if they are tall nerdy red-heads or whatever. Concentrate on topics of outreach, transcending political boundaries, and building a welcoming, constructive atmosphere. And it will be fine.<br />
<br />
tldr: It's a non-issue and straw-man argument; diversity statements are useful, easy to write, and don't violate academic freedom.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-53091125248356046802016-10-19T11:13:00.003-04:002016-10-19T11:13:37.687-04:00What is the best possible grade?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
What is the best possible grade a student can possibly get in a course? The answer seems to be obvious: it is an "A", or maybe "A+", right?<br />
<br />
But imagine a student with 4.0 GPA. Would not it mean that this student did not challenge themselves enough? That they took courses that were too simple for them, like CalcI when they ought to have taken CalcII? Would not it mean that they never struggled with the material? Arguably, if you are smart, the easiest way to get a 4.0 GPA is to always pick courses a notch lower than your current level. Then you will surely shine, like a superhero among normals.<br />
<br />
Which is curious because from behavioral studies in animals and humans we know that we learn best when we fail in about 50% of the cases. It maximizes information transfer, and so maximizes learning. It is surely very uncomfortable, even humiliating, and it would surely make you question your place in science if you fail on every other attempt, but curiously, all other aspects being equal, that's when you would have learned best.<br />
<br />
I obviously don't suggest that we make students fail in every other assignment (it's not middle ages anymore, and we just don't have the mental and emotional preparedness for it), but to learn they should fail at least every now and then. Which typically, for an honest and hard-working student, corresponds to a grade of A minus. Maybe even B plus.<br />
<br />
Does not it suggest that grades are useless though?<br />
<br />
Anecdotally, it seems to be the case. When I grade objectively, on a rubric with fixed thresholds, I see that non-specialists (students of different majors) and prodigies (students who take senior-level classes in their sophomore year) typically get about half a grade lower than similarly hard-working majors and seniors respectively. But is not it silly? They surely learn more, and in a way the very fact that they take harder courses than they are expected to speaks of their resilience, enthusiasm, and brilliance. But it's not reflected in the grade (although I can comment on it in a recommendation letter).<br />
<br />
And if it is silly, what should I do? Just give all sophomores a boost of half a grade? This would not seem fair. Grading on "effort"? I don't think it is possible to grade the effort objectively; some people would just suffer silently, and also it would send a wrong message to students. I have no good solution here, but sure it is an interesting question.<br />
<br />
And at least at the personal level I can tell that if I needed to hire an assistant, I would probably always prefer an A minus student to a straight-A student, as A minuses just seem to be more persistent and / or adventurous.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-87377289338102717702016-09-16T11:02:00.003-04:002017-03-07T10:15:21.756-05:00Research / teaching balance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This semester I meant to keep Fridays (one day a week I don't teach) for research exclusively, and resist the urge to catch up with teaching prep work on Fridays. But lo and behold, it took me exactly 3 weeks to relapse. The first week went well: I was writing a research paper. The second week was fine as well, but I had to come in on Saturday for a few hours to catch up with other work. But the third week came, and I'm defeated, at least temporarily. I need to rework a lecture that failed last year (the one about normal distribution - hard topic to conceptualize), write some lab assignments, and so on.<br />
<br />
Don't get me wrong, it obviously get easier with time: it seems that had I stuck exactly to my previous year lesson plans, I could have saved about half a day, maybe a day worth of time every week. But I am trying to rework both courses, to make them better: to introduce more group work and primary literature in my intro, and to move the emphasis away from probability theory and towards data presentation in my biostats class. And it means prep work, and weekly firefighting.<br />
<br />
Now, here's an interesting blog entry (from 2011, but relevant and very well written) about what it takes to get a tenure in a major research university:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2011/03/30/how-to-get-tenure-at-a-major-research-university/#.V9lN3vkrLIU">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2011/03/30/how-to-get-tenure-at-a-major-research-university/#.V9lN3vkrLIU</a><br />
<br />
It may seem like a non-sequitur, but actually it's intimately related to the existential threat of research Fridays. The question is: how should I balance research and teaching, in an ideal world? Is research only for vacations and weekends, or is it possible to do it during the week? And also, should it be possible, from the administration point of view, thinking in their shoes? Should we (the people, the faculty) encourage a more even split between teaching and research? We are a teaching college, but an aspiring one: we are a SLAC, as in "Small Liberal Arts College", but we want to become a SLAC as in "Selective Liberal Arts". We are trying to boost our profile, and it means that while teaching takes most of our time and effort, surprisingly, it is research that mostly comes up during tenure evaluations. I mean, if you are bad at teaching, you are fired. But once you are good, or at least decent, everybody just shift to weighing and assessing your research. Is it sustainable? But is it ambitious enough? Are you stretching too thin? Or maybe too narrow? Too many collaborations? Too few? Too little work with students? Too much student work? There are many dimensions to assess, and many considerations to balance.<br />
<br />
In a way, it came to me as a surprise that our tenure discussions are actually <i>not that far </i>from that in a major research university, at least in spirit. Granted, we can collaborate with our former advisers, we can be third authors, and the expectations for productivity are <i>much </i>lower; perhaps as much as 5-10 lower (depending on what weight you ascribe to collaborative papers). But the criteria themselves become more and more research-oriented.<br />
<br />
There are aspects of this shift that are worrying. For example, I don't quite like the shyness with which the older tenured folks refuse to set clear criteria for the publication record. The reasons for this shyness are actually good and valid: in a small college the same group of people has to discuss publication records of a computer scientist (all conferences), theoretical physicist (all arxive), molecular biologists (typical paper has 30 pages and 12 figures), and synthetic chemist (typical paper has 2 pages and 2 figures). It's hard to come up with clear criteria when every single case is so unique. Yet it is a bit annoying, as in theory this flexibility can be used both to save a case, and to sink it.<br />
<br />
But at the same time, there are upsides here as well, and not just because I personally like research. Perhaps the most curious one is that with research emphasized so strongly, our tenure goals are now not that far, in terms of CV building, from job search goals for a person who suddenly decides to leave for another institution. So in way now we can try to just "be successful" as potential job candidates. If we are successful, we'll probably get tenure as a collateral, but if for some reason we won't, we'll still have some decent chances of finding another job. It feels that in a teaching-only college there would be a stronger fork here, a bigger difference between tenure goals and job search goals. In our case it's not that bad, which makes the situation less risky.<br />
<br />
And in practice it means: publications, publications, and some more publications. No popular books no textbooks, minimal service. Teaching should be good, but pedagogy related publications, conferences, grants and projects are more important, as they are more objective and more visible to outsiders.<br />
<br />
That's the plan.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-75353210442698973212016-09-14T09:15:00.001-04:002016-09-16T11:03:04.984-04:00Thoughts about tenure evaluations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />It is the season of pre-tenure and tenure evaluations in my college, and all faculty are encouraged to write "testimonies" for their colleagues who are up to evaluation. These testimonies are supposed to be used for the tenure and reappointment discussions, one way or another. I wrote a few as well, and now I'm wondering whether I should also send them directly to the people in question; those who are about to be evaluated.<br /><br />There are some strong arguments in favor of sharing the evaluations openly and directly. Most importantly, my evaluations are actually very positive, and I think that we humans generally don't get nearly enough praise in life. It's all competition, benchmarking and impostor syndrome all the time. So maybe it would be nice for them to read something good about their teaching and research, for a change. Especially in this relatively stressful time when the meetings are about to happen that will (supposedly) decide their fate for nearest few years, and that they won't be able to attend. Also arguably it is useful to receive some real open feedback every now and then. Of course, they will receive the "evaluator's report" a few months later, but most probably not a single row of my original testimony will be quoted in this final report, or maybe half a sentence at most. Supposedly, testimonies are somehow "integrated" and "summarized" in the evaluation document by the evaluator, but not more than that.<br /><br />On the other hand, one could argue that if you send nice letters directly to people, you forever wave a possibility of writing a negative letter. Or actually not writing a letter when you are torn or indifferent. Because you would not probably share a negative letter, yet if you are known as a "sharer", but don't share anything next time, the person would infer that the letter was probably negative. That's the whole reason people use secret ballot voting to begin with. Also, I am kind of concerned that some of my praise may be not to the point, as I don't quite understand some of the aspects of other people's scholar work. What if I'm praising them for things that are not actually relevant in their own eyes? Who knows, different disciplines are different... At a risk of sounding paranoid, is it possible to inadvertently "damn by praise" - not even because it is faint, but because it is somehow idiosyncratically not to the point? <br /><br />For now I don't quite know what to do. Maybe I'll toss a coin really. I really like the idea of transparency and clarity, but at the same time there is a good reason tenure votes are always done by a secret ballot. I am not sure there is an ideal solution, but I am wondering what an optimal solution could be.</div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-15704359186928130032016-08-23T09:53:00.002-04:002016-08-23T10:03:31.165-04:00Advice to computational postdocs: apply to math and CS jobs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you are a computational neuroscientist, and would like to teach, consider marketing yourself not only to neuro and psych departments, but to math and computer science as well.<br />
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Why? Because I'm looking at our place, and how we totally struggle to get good candidates in both computer science and applied math. I guess the cynical way to put it is that both fields are so incredibly useful these days that any person who is skillful in them, and who can also teach (which implies good management and interpersonal skills), can probably find jobs in the industry with much higher salaries. And with similar levels of enjoyment. Either way, the fact seems to be that applied math and computer science are understaffed, despite the high demand from the students. During job searches, for each decent job application we get in computer science, we get 10 applications in psychology, even when the research topics are actually quite comparable.<br />
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In practice it means that a good postdoc or grad student in computational neuroscience can at least triple their chances of landing a great TT job if they create two more sets of application documents: one tailored for applied math jobs, and another - for computer science. And while it may seem scary, it's actually pretty easy to do.<br />
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Let's give it a close look. In a SLAC, faculty typically teach 4 types of courses:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Intro courses (something every major needs to take in lower college)</li>
<li>Core courses (something every major needs to take in upper college)</li>
<li>Fancy stuff (electives of various kinds)</li>
<li>Crazy fun (like math for lit majors, or computer science for historians)</li>
</ol>
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Basically, if you apply to math or CS dept as a neuroscientist, you need to make them know that you can teach all types of courses from this list, plus establish some "street credibility", so to say. Type (1) is never a problem: it would be "calculus I, II" in math (every computational person can do it), or intro to object-oriented programming in CS. You can do it. Type (3) is also easy: it would be what you do for a living, as a researcher, or maybe some one-two fields nearby; something like modeling, numerical computation, big data analysis, dynamical systems, machine learning, methods in Bayesian statistics, or something like that.</div>
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Which means that basically you just need to invent one crazy fun course (which should be relatively easy; just draw inspiration from your hobbies and side interests), and to convince the committee that you can teach core courses: something like linear algebra, differential equations or vector calculus in math; or data structures, algorithms, and discrete math in CS. That is a bit harder, but once you cover <i>some</i> of these courses (one may be enough), you are fine!</div>
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Now just reword your research statements accordingly, to compensate for the relative lack of "appropriate" education in these fields, and you are golden. You can apply to 3 times more positions than a straight neuro person would apply, and you would compete in a market with a much higher demand and lower supply, boosting your success rates.</div>
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khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-59141841955589985872016-08-22T12:49:00.003-04:002016-09-16T11:03:50.513-04:00Best way to create custom color palettes for visualization<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://colorbrewer2.org/#type=sequential&scheme=BuGn&n=3">Colorbrewer</a> is awesome, but quite restrictive. After browsing the web for some time, here's the best too I found, with tools to create very nice-looking, yet usable and informative custom color scales in any aesthetics you want. It's called the "chroma scale helper":<br />
<a href="http://gka.github.io/palettes/#colors=lightyellow,gray,teal,indigo|steps=5|bez=1|coL=1">http://gka.github.io/palettes/#colors=lightyellow,gray,teal,indigo|steps=5|bez=1|coL=1</a><br />
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Here's the description of how it works (it's very clever, and worth the read on its own, even if you never use the actual scale helper"<br />
<a href="https://vis4.net/blog/posts/mastering-multi-hued-color-scales/">https://vis4.net/blog/posts/mastering-multi-hued-color-scales/</a><br />
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Here's a table of color names it uses (you may have to browse for the color you like, but it's very doable)<br />
<a href="http://cng.seas.rochester.edu/CNG/docs/x11color.html">http://cng.seas.rochester.edu/CNG/docs/x11color.html</a><br />
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And finally, the source of these links (with some more advice on the matter of colors):<br />
<a href="http://lisacharlotterost.github.io/2016/04/22/Colors-for-DataVis/">http://lisacharlotterost.github.io/2016/04/22/Colors-for-DataVis/</a></div>
khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8938520352615957328.post-53633225808319027932016-06-29T15:16:00.003-04:002016-06-29T15:16:21.500-04:00Teaching scientific critique<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A very nice text on teaching how to critique scientific literature:<br />
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<a href="http://bayesfactor.blogspot.de/2016/04/how-to-train-undergraduate.html">http://bayesfactor.blogspot.de/2016/04/how-to-train-undergraduate.html</a></div>
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Main idea of the text: too many teaching assignments we use essentially encourage students to "bullshit"; to generate some plausible-looking, but empty rambling about the topic, or post-hoc interpretations of their results. It's hard to grade, it does not teach students real scientific thinking, it's just generally bad. The author then gives some good pieces of advice about how not to fall into this trap:</div>
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<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Be more specific: offer a critique yourself, evaluate the paper, and, potentially, vindicate it. Send a clear message that our goal is not to find a flaw, but to be able to asses whether there's a flaw in the study. </li>
<li>Clearly separate critique of methods from critique of results. I fully agree here; students tend to conflate hypothesis-building, experiment design, and results interpretation; they somehow combine it all into one horrible bezoar ball in their heads, and then try to describe it all at once. For example, they tend to perceive negative results as failed studies. Being very clear about <b>what </b>aspects of the study we are actually trying to critique should help here.</li>
<li>My favorite: instead of discussing papers, talk about pop science (post-press release articles that appear in the press). I think that's the most productive idea of all.</li>
</ol>
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khakhalinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353054479656181009noreply@blogger.com