Dear All,
Having just finished masses of teaching and, therefore, being barely
capable of coherent thought, I felt that I should add to the
generalities of this aspect of the DP debate.
I think that there are at least two purposes to marking the work of
students: the first is to allow the 'teachers' to gain an impression of
the abilities of individual students and the second is to provide
feedback to the students of how their 'teachers' regard their progress.
When examinations rear their heads, the latter purpose often takes a
back seat, particularly when those examinations are 'Final'.
Nevertheless, I would contend that this second purpose still exists and,
with appropriate feedback, can still be useful to a (non-)graduating
student.
As a professional, I would like to believe that I can be judged on my
opinions (or marks) as well as judging the students. Clearly, some 'old
practices' need modification but if, for example I were to write that
'this answer could have been improved upon by a lobotomised cockroach',
I would either need to be able to justify that statement or I should not
ever have made it in the first place. Keeping comments on a separate
sheet is primarily useful for health purposes - it can lower the blood
pressure and then the comments can be destroyed as part of the normal
examination process!
Rather than worrying about what we can get away with denying access to
the student, would it not just be better if we ensured that 'our act was
clean'?
Chris
PS I've been in this 'game' for 25 years and have been examination
officer for a good few of them. I know the disruption of student appeals
when much, if not all, of the examination information and examiner
comments can come to light.
--
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Dr. Chris Gliddon
School of Biological Sciences
University of Wales, Bangor
LL57 2UW United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1248 382533
FAX: +44 (0)1248 382569
Mobile: +44 (0)794 106 0423
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