Job Discussion Forums

[peewee1979]

I have been teaching at a so-so college housed inside of a key Chinese university. The courses I teach are about 75% business related and 25% English.

The mix of students is most are slacker types with some middle ground and a few are caring hard working students.

I consider myself an empathetic and understanding teaching and typically easy going. At the beginning of the semester I lay down the rules and I often remind the students how My System works.

It's a pretty simple premise: Come to class, do your work, pay attention, turn in your term projects and homework in on a timely basis, and TRY to complete your exams.

This allows even the slackers the chance to pass while doing the minimum.

Seems MANY of the students barely show up and some decided that handing in an exam paper with less than 25% of the questions answered is ok. Some decided that the mandatory term project ( worth 30-40% of the final grade) was optional for them.

So I failed maybe 14 out of about 140 total students.

Recently I had to stop by the school office to turn in some documents to the academic director. While there I saw the office staff stuffing envelopes with the students final grades. I glanced at a few just out of curiosity. I saw some students that I failed ( for various reasons) and remarkably their grades in my class showed a pass.

Seems ALL of the failing grades in one grade level were changed to pass. Yes all of them.

So i asked the academic director's assistant about this. She said the failing students who's grades were over 50 were changed to 60 based on their head teacher's recommendation.

So should I be concerned about this? My response to the assistant and the academic director was simply: " If you had told me your wishes I would have simply marked on a curve and passed them - if that was what the school wanted".

Of course I understand China ( ok I retract that - I will NEVER understand China!) but just felt that they should have been more direct with me and told me the "school policy" on passing those that pay etc etc.

At first I was a little bothered as I put much effort into my teaching, class preparation, and designing the exams - much more effort than many of the students.

So now I have 5 weeks to kill.

[Opiate]

Forget about it.

[peewee1979]

[Opiate]

I am Italian and grew up within spitting distance of Brooklyn.

[MisterButtkins]

did u miss the ongoing thread about this?

tbh bro it just seems like you aren't really paying attention to how things work here if you were that surprised that they changed your grades. It sucks that you put a lot of effort into your classes and still had many lazy students. Next semester you will not make the mistake of thinking you are teaching a serious class, and can instead do the bare minimum, not giving homework, giving BS exams, and passing all the students. The students will all like you better, as will the administration, since they now know you won't cause probems.

[xiguagua]

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Little backwater colleges are highly competitive because there are so many of them. That's why they pretty much guarantee a diploma/degree to all students. High-level universities such as Fudan are completely different and you have to put in the work in order to get that paper with backing transcripts.

Middle of the road universities are where Chinese professors can make the most money and have the most luxurious lifestyle because of all the grades-for-bribes going on. Of course, foreigners are not allowed to play that game at all because that game is reserved for the Romans.

Yet another case of the classic "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" not applying because this is one of the many things reserved exclusively for the Romans.

Next term, just do what all the other long-term FT's do: watch movies, play games, maybe play the guitar for them, sing, entertain... that's what many FT's in colleges seem to do around here...

[creztor]

Forget it. They all pass, so don't bother rocking the boat. Once you "experience" how the system works, you realize there's no point in fighting it. Give them what they want and take your pay. If you don't, someone else will. If it makes you feel any better, what you describe happens in the "free" China as well. It's exactly the same.

[Ariadne]

I was a little worried today when I turned in my grades. Most of the students in my Reading classes got 'A's or 'B's. Last semester my handler gave me a hard time because some of my classes had "too many 'A's". Hey, if they do the homework and do well on the exams, they deserve good grades. I have no problem failing kids who don't attend or who perform poorly. I failed several this term. I put alot of effort into lesson planning, test preparations, grading, and then figuring grades. I don't know if the school changes my grades and I don't really want to know. I enter the grades into the school's computer system and sign all the copies. I'll take my salary and have a wonderful time at home during the semester break. As someone else said already, I will NEVER understand China. (But I still really like working here.)

.

[Miles Smiles]

This is interesting. At the beginning of the term, I was handed a list --- no, wait, a list appeared on my lectern. On it were names of students who would be absent on certain dates with the reasons why they would be absent.

I kept the note for future reference. These very same students missed not only the dates on the note, but they skipped every class last term except the first day.

On the first day of class, I told everyone that regardless of their reasons for missing class, they are responsible for all classwork (done in a notebook) as well as every quiz, some of which were unannounced.

Out of a class of twenty-six, fourteen failed. Why? They didn't come to class, and they did not make up any tests or make up any class work.

I delivered the tests, notebooks, and grades to the department at the end of the term.

A week later, I went to the FL department. My Chinese department contact was worried by the high percentage of failures. She said that the list of students was actually written by another Chinese teacher, and that those students were expected to pass. I told her that I expected everyone to pass if they came to class, but unfortunately, they didn't pass because they didn't come to class and they failed the final exam. If they had passed the final, I'd cut some slack.

--- But those students need a passing grade!

I went to the teacher who was covering for those students and told her that I didn't know that I was allowed to manufacture grades for non-achievers and no-shows. I said that I thought that it cheapens the whole system, and it cheapens my own efforts in the class room. [Go ahead and laugh. I don't blame you].

I was told again that the students were expected to pass. I told the teacher that if she expected me to change the grades, I wouldn't do it for a couple of reasons, the first of which involved academic integrity and ethics and fairness. I told her that if she thought that she knew the students well enough to guess their ability in the subject, then she should change the grades herself because I just don't have the intellectual ability to assess students who don't come to class. I told her that if she thought slacker Xiao Wang should pass without even coming to class, she should also explain to Sun Li Li why she received only an 85 even though she came to class every day, did all of the work, and took all of the tests, and worked her butt off but Xiao Wang passed the class without even coming to class.

The story circulated through the FL department. A Chinese teacher told me about some of the comments made by other teachers. They had experienced similar things, but they always faked the grades because they were expected to do so.

Believe it or not, some teachers expressed admiration for my willingness to stand up to the other teacher.

[Non Sequitur]

I wonder what happens at aviation colleges?

[Miles Smiles]

[xiguagua]

[creztor]

Miles, that was a great story. However, did the students end up passing? It's a different story when the head of the department, who has the power to have you removed, calls and asks why Xiao Wang failed. Grade changing shouldn't happen, but it's systemic and rocking the boat will only make one's life harder.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Of course they ended up passing. They paid the fee to the school (or the bribe to the teacher) and the list of students was most likely a list of students who 'paid extra' to be able to be absent from class.