szarka on Nostr: In the education biz, we distinguish between "formative" and "summative" assessment. ...
In the education biz, we distinguish between "formative" and "summative" assessment. A well-designed course will have lots of low-stakes assignments/quizzes so that students get valuable feedback that helps them learn as they "do and fail". Summative assessment (stuff like final exams, final drafts of a research paper, a recital, etc.) are intended to measure the *outcome* of the learning process, so those are typically weighted more heavily in a course grade.
We do need summative assessment. For one thing, it's how teachers know whether students are actually learning what we claim to be teaching them. At the same time, the days when students take a college class and get graded on, say, just two exams are long gone. We provide much more opportunities for summative assessment than when I was an undergrad!
But all of that is useless if students don't engage with those low stakes tasks in order to actually learn the things whose mastery they're being graded on.
Another reason that students feel pressure to be perfect today is grade inflation. Check out gradeinflation.com for some eye-opening statistics. If half your class is getting an A, an A- looks really bad!
We do need summative assessment. For one thing, it's how teachers know whether students are actually learning what we claim to be teaching them. At the same time, the days when students take a college class and get graded on, say, just two exams are long gone. We provide much more opportunities for summative assessment than when I was an undergrad!
But all of that is useless if students don't engage with those low stakes tasks in order to actually learn the things whose mastery they're being graded on.
Another reason that students feel pressure to be perfect today is grade inflation. Check out gradeinflation.com for some eye-opening statistics. If half your class is getting an A, an A- looks really bad!