Hi
On Tue, 21 Dec 1999, Peter Westfall wrote:
> Regarding making the standard deviation large, Deming would say that
> management's (professors, administrators) job entails minimizing
> variation among students. This can be done in the usual ways -
> admissions procedures, advising, prerequisites. Individual classes are
> "processes" within the larger system, and in the process of continual
> improvement, one seeks ways to minimize variation within the processes.
> Deming shows a diagram where the knowledge of people before training is
> scattered and highly variable, and after training the mean level is
> higher but the variation smaller. The inference is that the more
> effective the classroom experience, the less variation in the final
> levels of knowledge and abilities of the students, as they pertain to the
> subject at hand.
Artificially giving all students (or almost all) the same grade
does not minimize variation in the underlying trait, achievement,
in this case. It simply hides the variation so that one does not
know to what extent one is minimizing differences in achievement,
and rewards students for not trying to achieve more than some
minimal level.
> My question is again: Is ranking really necessary? Given the goal of
> reducing variation, what does it help? Students in competition for the
> scarce A's will withhold information from one another. Does this achieve
> the stated aim of the system in an optimal way? W. Edwards Deming would
> have said, most emphatically, no. He spoke quite often of the
> educational system particularly in his later years; his message was not
> at all meant to be limited to manufacturing.
Grading is not equivalent to ranking, unless one uses a forced
distribution. One can grade without any restriction on the
number of As or other grades other than the achievement of the
students. I would be interested in hearing about any empirical
evidence that non-use of grading schemes produces better or even
as good learning as the use of grades?
Best wishes
Jim
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James M. Clark (204) 786-9757
Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax
University of Winnipeg 4L05D
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark
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