The readings for this week answered some of my questions about academic honesty, grading, and tests. They also made me start to think about what kind of policies I would want to have in a classroom as a teacher. Looking back at some of my undergrad classes, they were lacking in methods to prepare me as a student for graduate school or a career. Academic honesty is important for students to understand because they will not only see this at the university level, but when they have a career. Students need to understand what is cheating and plagiarism. Lang and Davis both touch on this subject. From my experience I think teachers tend to ignore explaining this to students and just read the excerpt written by the university. Davis (p. 352) gives an example of having a short lecture on how to write research papers and the proper use of sources. If students don’t know how to do this, I think it would be difficult to punish them. How should plagiarism be treated if the students just incorrectly format or don’t realize they are doing it? Should they be penalized like a traditional case? As a new teacher, what is the best way to address this issue if it arises?
Formatting and developing tests is an overwhelming task that I am not looking forward to as a teacher. I think it will be hard to find a balance between too hard and too easy. What are some methods or advice to help with this process? Davis (p. 368 and 370) provided some examples of different test methods that I thought were interesting. The idea of having a group exam is a new concept to me. Is this an effective way for students to take an exam? I think students will learn, but I would have to find a way to evaluate the individual student. Davis mentions another idea for developing tests that I think is interesting, students submitting test questions. This would be a great method to see what material students find valuable enough for an exam. If you choose questions from students, do you give them extra points for writing a good question? There should probably be some type of reward system so students do not feel like they are wasting their time.
Another topic that I find hard to decide on is late work and make-up exams. I understand that things happen that are out of students control, but some professors still do not care. What is a good late work policy and how should make-up exams be handled? Should students have a one day grace period, but only be allowed so many of those grace periods before points are removed the next time?
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