Ask any professor about their least favorite task, and you will certainly hear about grading. Usually the metaphors involve emotional or physical pain: "It is an albatross around my neck, the cross I must bear, my thorn in the flesh." I have met no one yet who has a consistently positive attitude towards it. Recently I have thought philosphically about it. Why is grading so difficult? If grading is so painful, why do we continue the practice? How can I grade in a way that is appropriate and even "Christian"? I'll address the first question in this post.
Grading is difficult for a number of reasons. First, it is very time consuming and energy intensive. In my classes grading often involves reading through student papers which are lengthy, detailed, and heavily documented, usually over the same topic. It simply requires a lot of time and energy to process all the data properly, and I have to maintain that same level of time and energy even when I'm reading the same topic multiple times.
Second, related to the first point, the benefits received as a faculty member are rather minimal, or perhaps out of proportion with the effort expended. To be fair, the appropriateness of my grading is a factor in student evaluations of me, which are reviewed for tenure, and occasionally students will thank me for some helpful comments here and there. But normally all the work I spend in grading gets no notice, receives minimal thanks, and has little tangible effect upon my professional standing.
Third, grading generates conflict. Rarely do I have conflict with students over matters covered in class presentations, although that does happen on occasion. Most often student-faculty conflict occurs over grades given to an assignment. Interestingly enough, it is always a one-way street: The student feels the grade is not high enough. I have never had a student approach me to say that a grade was unfair because it was too high. (The reasons for this would be worth another post.)
Fourth, it shows up my own shortcomings as a teacher, which can be painful to realize. Students frequently will err on matters I know I have covered in class. I constantly ask myself, "What did I do wrong in my teaching such that this student missed the point?"
Fifth, it shows up shortcomings in students, and it is not a pleasant interpersonal experience to highlight these matters. This usually occurs when most everyone in a class does well on a certain aspect of an assignment, but a few students do not. Getting to the heart of why these few students missed these issues can be painful.
A pretty gloomy picture, but there is a silver lining to this cloud, one that I think can eventually overtake the gray. More to come.
Dr. Michael Burer is Assistant Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is the assistant project director for the NET Bible and has contributed various studies to the bible.org site. His first book - A New Reader's Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, co-authored with Jeff Miller - is forthcoming summer 2008.
In order to take away some of the pressure, I would be willing to grade my own exegetical paper for you.
That's a very generous offer, Carl! Since self-assessment is all the rage in some academic circles, you might be on to something.
Post new comment