Yes, your point is exactly what I am thinking about grades. Grades move our focus from learning to getting higher GPA. And our motivation becomes getting higher grades instead of learning and applying those subjects to our life or our field. I am a Ph.D. student, and still, I feel annoyed when I get a grade lower than A. But when I think about that situation, I realize that the grade is the least important thing in my life anymore.

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Thanks for the post, Hana. I totally agree with you. We always want to have the best grades in our life even if it is not important for us. Also, our grades, particularly in our field, are mostly interpretation based because we are designing places and there is not a single truth in design even if we have certain standards for certain designs. If our designs are applicable and appropriate to standards, the rest is mostly up to the professor’s perspective or interpretation. To get a better grade, we needed to follow our professors’ directions most of the time when we were in undergrads and that situation affected our creativity for sure.

As someone coming from the corporate F&B world I understand that there must be a mix of transactional (carrot/stick) and transformational leadership to make a department function to it’s fullest extent. I can’t tell you how excited the staff would get when they win a free meal for having the highest sales of an item, the best attendance, the highest Forbes audit, etc. I think there is a lot to say for setting standards and rewarding top performers but at the same time that is primarily to make a work environment fun and not monotonous. In the education setting I think there must also be a fair mix. Not sure how to go about it exactly but I love the conversations it is starting!

Thanks!

Cheers, Lehi

Armin, Thanks for the post! Do you think that the advisor-ship of PhD students is close to the assessment system that you are talking about? I feel like the self-development plan is similar to our plan of study, but in reality, POS normally plays a role of an administrative form.

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Sevda, I enjoy reading your post and I also feel a little angry about your experience. It is so wrong for a teacher utilizing grade for punishment, and it is a big relief that as PhD students, our progress is not dependent on grades anymore.

I really enjoyed your post! Any blog with a yoda reference automatically gets my comment. LOL! As a TA I’ve also found that open writing assignments for the students seems to throw them for a loop. They write as though we’ve given them an essay topic and expect a full outline of facts and figures. I’m actually going through rubric “discussion”, we’ll call it with a professor I’m TA’ing for…..I think we can allow for some creativity and the professor completely disagrees. Obviously, I go with what they want but it’s not how I would do it. Nothing should be concrete when it’s a critical thinking case study as there are always alternative rationales that I didn’t necessarily think of.

Thanks!

Cheers, Lehi

Good afternoon Ali,

YES, really enjoyed reading your blog for reasons I’m sure I don’t have to explain. Academic bullying has taken on larger than life proportions in graduate studies primarily because “if I had to go through this then so do you” mentality. However, it takes open and frank discussions to plant the seeds of change and thankfully we are allowed freedom of speech (thus far) to have those discussions. Part of the power dynamic at play loses it’s control when horror stories are verbalized, because, some professors are completely oblivious to it. Loved it!

Thanks!

Cheers, Lehi

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I believe the question you posed about whether or not students care about feedback is important and worthy to explore. From my personal experience I can tell absolutely yes, there are some exceptions nevertheless. Thinking about myself as a student and my experience as teacher, I think if student sees her teacher as an individual who cares about her success, she would express more willingness to care and reflect on feedback; though the quality and extent of feedback is completely different issue that may influence this process. Also I remember students who reflected on their experience with me and explicitly appreciated the feedback in teaching evaluation.

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You bring up a good point about failure. Students are wired to believe that failing is a bad thing. It stems from a young age with the concept of awarding participation trophies. An emphasis needs to be placed on learning from mistakes and the development/growth that occurs from failing.

I agree grades are tricky, but I definitely think they are not the ONLY way to assess what a student knows. So why not get rid of them and replace with something better? I really like how you brought in the Mark Twain quote… and think about how long ago that was written and in how many literature classes that book is read in and that quote is highlighted, yet we still have some big changes that need to be made in the classroom.