Yeah, OK, I’ll give that one to you, but I was being hyperbolic. Yes there are extremely knowledgeable people one could consider experts in various fields. My protest or distrust of “experts” is rooted in the social currency that title confers on subjects. That social currency can be used to mislead a lot of people, and not even necessarily on purpose! I’m sure that there were a lot of “experts” on the economy who heartily endorsed the real estate finance industry before the 2008 crisis. Greenspan, for instance. What about the Red Cross, an institution full of supposed experts on disaster relief, or at least it should be? What did they do with all that money they raised for the Haitians during their recovery efforts during the 2010(?) earthquake? They sure didn’t give it to the Haitians.

I went to St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.

Thank you very much for your comment. I agree that we need to contextualize our efforts to teach and become more creative in our course designs and instruction techniques. It is the biggest part of our job. However, I believe assessment should not be something that turns the entire process of learning a fight for survival. It should rather promote self reflection and mindful learning. I believe too much emphasis on the assessment/grading paves the way for establishing outcome oriented relationships with the students. One way or another we will be exposed to an assessment process at some point in our lives. I argue that the relationship the students establish with the assessment does not have to be top-to-down, blind to the multitude of ways of learning, and thus, painful.

Thank you very much for your comment. I found the idea to comment on the students performances as opposed to grading them. Although I also grade my student, I give them the option to revise their paper and resubmit their assignments as long as it is a fundamental part of the learning process. I benefited from self reflection in my learning process. Therefore, I try to give more space to my students.

Thank you very much for your comment. I look for and experiment new ways of establishing a relationship that are not predominantly depended on grades. It is challenging; however, I observe that my objectives in teaching is very much in line with my passion in pursuing this a career in academia.

thank you very much for your comment. I think the question is rather how we conceptualize the assessment process and whether we pay attention to the students’ individual ways of learning. Even if we are required to use conventional assessment techniques, we need to make sure how we frame it and contextualize it in terms of the learning process and the perception of success.

Thank you very much for your comment. I am grading my students assignments as well. Thus, this practice such deeply embedded in our minds that it determines almost the grounds of the relationship between the teacher and the student. What I try to do is give them more options and try to get their feedback and share my ideas on their work so that they can think about their learning process.

Thank you very much for your comment. My approach to grading is letting the student decide what grade are they aiming at. I also grade my students based on assignments; however, I do not use it as a punishment. I believe a collage student is capable of and have the freedom of making decisions on their learning process. I try to give them more choices. I constantly ask their opinions. I underline that I value their feedback. And I am offering the option to resubmit their papers after I give feedback to them, because I want them to succeed. My initial goal is to make the students work about the task and support their learning process. Interestingly, they rarely get in touch with me. It would be harder for me if more students were reaching out to me; however, I wish they did.

Thank you so much for your comment. I agree with you that education is a marker of privilege in a sense. These students may be pushed for performing their “worth” even more.