Turning Up the Volume on Graduate Education Reform

I read something recently that said, “By acting as if grading motivates learning, we put both student and faculty energies in the wrong place.” Grades are supposed to assess learning, not be the goal. Students too often see the grade as the thing they go to class for, when they are supposed to go for learning and practice. And it’s the professors’ faults because we hold grades over their heads.
Or is it the professors’ faults?
I wrote this in class. I sometimes use Sondra Perl’s composing guidelines as a pre-writing activity. Many a Chronicle blog post has arisen out of class time with Perl’s guidelines. About five steps in with this one, I looked up and saw about four students studying for another class and at least one sleeping (or close enough to it). Read more...