In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Radford Neal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>Arthur J. Kendall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in sci.stat.edu:
>>>Is it unethical to display a frequency count and percentages of the >>>grades for a course (without any names or identifiability) since someone >>>might feel badly about where they stand in the class? I do not believe that there is a clear answer on this. If the class is small enough, say less than 50, this might still enable a good guess on someone's grade. >In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, >Stan Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>After most quizzes, I show the class the median and mean. I have >>sometimes thought about displaying the further information mentioned >>above, but have desisted exactly because I'm concerned about hurt >>feelings. >>I'd like to hear some comments from others on this. >It seems like a strange thing to be concerned about to me. >First of all, shouldn't you be equally concerned about the harm to >students that may come from their not realizing how good/bad their >performance is relative to others, and consequently making an unwise >decision as to whether or not to persue a career in this field? I do not see things this way; grading should try to be absolute. As far as "relative to others", this should not be others in the class, but others in the field. >And if you are concerned about hurt feelings, why do you show the >median and mean? Surely comparison with those is quite enough to >cause hurt feelings in some students. I do not believe that the question is hurt feelings, but confidentiality of the grade. >Shouldn't university students be treated as adults? This does not affect the matter of confidentiality. > Radford Neal -- This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University. Herman Rubin, Deptartment of Statistics, Purdue University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558 . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
