Dear all,
A little query ...
... a colleague of mine who works in a geography dept. which will
remain nameless - but which, incidentally, does give its examiners
clear guidelines for marking - posed a question which intrigued me
the other day.
faced with a pile of exams to mark she had been reflecting on the criteria
for marking exam essays and, having consulted the guidelines, was also
drawing up a list of questions to bear in mind in marking an essay to
assess what mark it warranted.
she developed a list which included things like:
- have they understood the question?
- have they addressed the question?
- have they constructed a coherent argument?
- have they used evidence appropriately?
- have they been creative?
- have they worked with a sensible structure?
- have they defined their terms clearly?
- have they produced an interesting answer?
she then spent some time thinking about other criteria, when, all
of a sudden she realized that she had not even considered the issue of
- is the answer right or wrong?
she wondered whether this should be a criterion, whether it could be,
and whether it ever was a criterion in less 'postmodern' times when
people were more willing to talk about the truth or falsity of statements.
thinking back to her own undergraduate days several years ago she felt
that rightness/wrongness probably wasn't much of a criterion - heck,
she had written some rubbish and still done OK - but wondered whether
this had always been the case.
as a final thought, she wondered whether it was a good or a bad thing
that rightness/wrongness of answers didn't seem to be an issue.
she wasn't sure as she seemed to have lost the ability to say what
would be good and what would be bad.
... and then she realized that even the criteria she had developed
weren't all that straightforward either.
'oh dear' she sighed.
she wondered what other people thought and asked me to send this to the
list.
any comments?
cheers,
alan
PS: Enjoy marking!
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Dr. Alan C. Hudson
University Assistant Lecturer
and
IB Director of Studies at Fitzwilliam College
Department of Geography, and Fitzwilliam College,
University of Cambridge, Cambridge,
CB2 3EN, CB3 0DG,
United Kingdom. United Kingdom.
Tel: + 44 (0) 1223 333364 (Department - Direct line)
Tel: + 44 (0) 1223 333399 (Department - General Office)
Fax: + 44 (0) 1223 333392 (Department)
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/achhome.htm
(Currently, a very dull, slow (not my fault!), but functional, website!)
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