Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ytuque]

My final grades will be submitted via a spreadsheet, so that it can be changed by the administration as needed. They have specifically asked that I not submit a signed copy in ink - pencil is ok.

Is this a common practice?

[bassexpander]

We submit ours via computer program. I'd be willing to be that they could be changed at any time, but I don't think they are. We've had waygook teachers take off and leave on vacation before the last date students can contest the grades, and the administration went crazy trying to find the teacher to address the changes.

In once case, a teacher was somewhere they couldn't reach her (in another country with no phone or internet close by). She had entered her grades for a class, but clicked the wrong button and forgot to save them before logging out. The office assistant was FRANTIC. I had to do the grading myself (based on the scores -- absent grades -- they found in her office). With the exception of one student, who got a slightly better grade than he should have, everything turned out OK.

We did our best with what we had.

[ytuque]

Bass:

Does your uni have a proficiency exam in English for students as part of a graduation requirement? My uni does but some departments have an 'all students will pass' policy. As a result, most students are not worried about the proficiency exam or English classes for that matter.

[Zaria32]

I taught at a university last year...their policy was that grades were determined by attendance...I kid you not.

[makemischief]

We have a system similar to Bass's- we enter our own grades into the system. Far as I know they aren't being altered. Students have to pass our writing course and our presentation course to graduate. Some take multiple attempts to do it.

[bassexpander]

[ytuque]

thanks for the info! I see my uni does things a bit differently

[Thiuda]

I've worked at several tertiary institutions, and in all but one the procedure was the same as Bass described. However, at a two year college I was asked to hand in the grading sheet completed in pencil so my supervisor could change grades if necessary. I was told, by the department head, that no students would fail, that instead any F became a C. He went on to tell me that the college had a policy whereby good students received an A, average students a B, and the rest a C.

The college in question lies in a rural area and attracts most of its students from Seoul; those who may not enter university. They go to college for two years and transfer to universities thereafter, based on their performance at college. Many of the students come from well situated families who expect their kids to complete some kind of tertiary education - even if they're eminently unsuited to learning in general. To give two examples that stand out; in an English for Special Purposes class I had a mentally handicapped student who was unable to speak, yet earned a B. She couldn't write in Korean or English, could converse in only the most rudimentary Korean and had the annoying habit of getting up in the middle of class, walk up to the front of the classroom, and start following me around. Another student, who was a sports major, had been in a traffic accident, lost his right arm and was partially paralysed.

I kid you not.

[HapKi]

In my experience, failing students has one of many outcomes.

1-you never saw them in class, you give an F and that's it.

2- you never saw them in class, you give and F, and then get a call from your Head.

3-you saw them at mid term and final, they assumed this was enough, and you give and F. You get a call from your Head.

4- poor attendance.

In cases 2, 3, and 4, chances are they by-passed you and went straight to your English Dept. head. Or their Dept. Head, who then called your Dept. Head. Doing this unsurps your power, and I find it cuts the legs out from under you. React as you may.

Another thing that might happen is that they come to your office, you explain the breakdown of their score, show them their F, and then have them beg, plead, beg in Korean, and basicially put their score in your hands, then and there. As in, they will not leave. The fact that they cannot put together two words together in English in their defence does not help them any. As I said, do as you may.

[yingwenlaoshi]

Isn't English usually a bird course? Like Russian class back home? If it's just an elective, who cares? They should, however, put some effort towards it and show some sort of improvement or proof that they learned something.

[makemischief]

[yingwenlaoshi]

[ytuque]

The whole thing reminds me of boxing during the Seoul Olympics. I guess I will just go with the flow....