Job Discussion Forums

[petebeatstreet]

I know that the scores I give stay unchanged because I have students who have failed pester me incessantly after they get their grade on the school system.

My university sees fit to give out the foreign teachers' private email addresses to these students. They (the pesky students)do, however get a strong tongue lashing, in a reply, and their grade remains as it was.

[wangdaning]

Grades do not change where I work, unless there is a discussion and agreement between first and second markers, or with the external examiners.

I occasionally get the student wondering about their grades. I am more than happy to go through their work with them and explain. We video all speaking assessments. In three and a half years I have had about three students actually come to my office and look over their work. None have argued, but all have walked away knowing where they need to improve.

If you work in a place that ignores your marks, then my advise would be to not take assessing the students seriously. If you do it will just give you unneeded head aches.

There might be something else here that we are just not in the know about. I have no clue how Chinese universities finalize student grades, it may be that a low mark that is out of the ordinary is averaged with marks from other courses.

[Non Sequitur]

Petebeat
Do you think the students would approach you directly if they weren't given your email address?
If they did, would you be prepared to show why their grade was less than they expected?
That is, things as simple as not attending class, or more complex reasons?
I've always found that with Oral English the result is very subjective. You can be testing over a week. Who is to say that I'm approaching the first student on Monday morning in the last one on Friday afternoon?
That's why I arrange my student mark slips in order and reflect if the order is what I would have expected.
I also compare the top 3 or 4 in each class across the nine-odd classes to reassure myself that there is some kind of logic to it all.
My very best student over all my classes for the semester can expect say 92%.
I would much prefer to mark A, B etc for Oral English.
Happy to let anyone have my mark slip blank (3 on an A4 - Word format). PM me with an email address.

[igorG]

Scores of students may not change if there isn't a motive. FTs authority over students' final scores is dependent on the courses and perhaps students' future plans. However, if schools are ambitious and wish to advertise with students' scores, it will most likely be motivating enough to alter any lower scores given. Haven't we seen so many local educators with a questionable integrity and high level of interference from their superiors? Aren't we having our own western institutions falling over backwards for guaranteed cash from foreign students?

[Non Sequitur]

I agree, local educators' (and higher degree candidates') integrity is suspect.
One English Masters student who befriended me asked if I would run an eye over her thesis.
Whole pages were cut and pasted from Wikipedia. Much of it with the 'citation required' still in place and not even an attempt to put the document in one font.
Undergraduate students told me about one Professor (we're talkin' a top tier uni here folks) who copied stuff of the internet and published to students as her own work.
I asked how they tracked the plagiarism and they said we look for a phrase that she couldn't possibly have written, and type it verbatim into Google.
When I asked the kids how they felt about it they just shrugged.

[petebeatstreet]

[Non Sequitur]

Thanks.
I would be very irritated by this.
Clearly a culture has grown up whereby the school avoids any negative feedback to students and gives that responsibility to you.

[nomad-ish]