Anti-Climacus

A THOUGHT ON TEACHING AND THE MODELS ONE TAKES:

Pedagogy is a fascinating subject, and discussing it the academic equivalent of writers talking about writing. Since I am, in theory at least, here for office hours, it seems like a good time to write down some thoughts. We had a dinner for the graduate colloquium of the ethics institute here at Duke a few days ago, where the subject of blogging came up. I gave the usual defenses of it (doesn't occupy any more time than seriously reading the paper, allows me to connect with people doing interesting work in related areas (what would I do without International Law Reports?), etc), and the post below which discusses grading came up.

My interlocutors were unsympathetic to the general argument about grade inflation. We did agree, however, that there are two classes of students who may, properly speaking, deserve the highest grades that can be given. The first are those who meet all the terms of the assignment, who tend to be smart students who work hard, but don't have a natural facility with the subject matter they are expected to employ. The second are students who exceed the terms of the assignment, who produce work that indicates deep familiarity with the subject area and, quite possibly, the ability to do graduate-level work in the area.

For both, I insisted, the grade's not the thing. Students who meet the terms of the assignment and do good work never, ever mind being told that's exactly what they've done, all the moreso if they don't think of themselves as the sort of person who can or does work at that level. Students who are functioning at a higher level often value a real critique of their work more than just the grade, or appreciate being told they are capable of doing work at a higher level, should they so choose.

One of my interlocutors disagreed rather strenuously, arguing that a professor should reserve his highest grade for people who produce exceptional work, and make it known beforehand that the grade will only be given out under those circumstances. The professor who first introduced this approach to him is well-known (you've heard of him) for being curmudgeonly and very, very hesitant to write letters or say nice things about anyone. And this experience has framed, for him, how professors ought to relate to their students.

Looking at my experience, though, I think that all the really important stuff happens outside the classroom. So the professors and TAs who had an impact on me had it during office hours, or in email contact, or in comments on papers rather than grades (I remember some TAs I had as a freshman who first suggested grad school to me). Consequently, when I teach or TA, those are the things I put the big emphasis on: not that the classroom is unimportant, but that there are lots of possibilities outside of it to speak more directly to students and their needs.

This does lead me to think that there are lots of things in teaching style that aren't arbitrary, that are handed down or learnt whether or not one recognizes that's what is happening.