20150508.0708

Today promises to be a busy day. I have not got freelance work to attend to, nor have I conference work; both of those are done for now, with nothing else to do until another order is offered or I am on-site. Instead, today will be taken up by exams and grading; I have two exams to preside over, and so I will have two exams to grade. How many show up for them is not yet clear to me; some are not in position to suffer for skipping or benefit from taking, and some of those are doubtlessly aware of their positioning. I would not blame them for not sitting for the test; indeed, I would appreciate it, as it lessens the grading burden I face this afternoon and evening.

The thought occurs that my appreciation bespeaks a view that there is no point in doing things that "don't matter," and sitting for an exam that will have no effect on the course grade does not matter...if the grade in the course is the point of the course. (That it is for many people, I am well aware. The number of students who have come to me asking for one or two more points on things is proof enough of it.) It is easy to think that it is, of course; the course grade is the end result that is measured and recorded, and it factors into decisions about money and hiring. But the grade is also in many cases a measure of how well a student can follow directions, how well that student can conform to expectation--and that may well not be learning. (The grade can also sometimes reflect how much a professor likes a student. It should not. For me, it does not; I am reported to hate my students, after all.) Ideally, an exam should oblige students to generate new knowledge as they sit for it; it should not simply be a reiteration of material previously covered. If the point of a class is to learn new things, then sitting for a properly-designed exam is never something that does not matter--irrespective of the grade to be earned.

Admittedly, such an event does require the exam to be designed properly, and while I think that mine are thusly constructed, I am not sure. It also requires the environment and context to be such that conduce to learning as the end-goal, and I readily admit that I do not foster such and environment and context as much as I should. For one, I have not the institutional heft to be able to do more than "the job" for which I am hired, and such contextualization runs counter to things such that the heft is needed to avoid being swept away. For another, when I have been in a position to do so and have attempted to do so, I have not met with enough success to justify the continued effort; such as I have found would, I think, have come about without my intervention, or without my devoting class time to it. (Office hours are altogether different.)

I am not certain where this line of thought leads me. I am not certain that this line of thought leads me. I am certain, however, that I need to get another cup of coffee...