TEACHSOC: Re: about low grades

[Susan Boser]

Curious situation, Jack.  However, I'd hesitate to implement a solution to fix it without understanding the nature of the problem.  So my first step would be to research it.  For example, highest failure by how much?  Are there any particular sections with unusually high failure rates that may be affecting the dept. mean?  Also, are there patterned structural differences between the soc intros and the other discipline's intros?  For example, are there differences in when the soc are offered (i.e., fall, 1st yr, compared with spring or in the second year)? Or differences in the times the class is offered?  Or class sizes?   In addition, I would probably want to talk with some folks in other departments, review their syllabi, and explore how they view and respond to the particular pedagogical challenges your student population brings.  And, I'd want to talk with some students, too.    I appreciate the tendency to take student failure personally - it is a sign that you care.  I would probably feel the same.  However we can also view such feedback as an opportunity to expand how we view things, and to grow.  So thank you for raising this situation with the list.  If your department does decide to research this a bit, I'd be interested in what you find.  It could potentially benefit us all.   Best regards, Susan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Susan Boser, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, Department of Sociology Coordinator, Doctoral Program in Administration and Leadership Studies Indiana University of Pennsylvania 102C McElhaney Hall Indiana, PA  15701 Phone (724) 357-1291 Fax (724) 357-4842     ----- Original Message ----- From: Jack Estes To: teachsoc@googlegroups.com Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 8:38 AM Subject: TEACHSOC: about low grades I'm baffled. We were informed the other day that intro to sociology classes at our college (a 2-year school with 19,000 students) have the highest failure rate among social science classes, maybe the highest in the college. The dean suggested that we hold workshops for all students who are signed up to help prepare them for the classes. The workshops would be during the week prior to the beginning of classes and would be led by sociology faculty (at 60% of our "hourly" rate, since this wouldn't be "teaching"). You can imagine that we're pretty pissed and skeptical, mostly convinced that the students who would be failing are not the ones who would attend such a workshop. But we're also curious. Why are our classes experiencing such high failure rates? Why are ours higher than others (especially history, political science, psychology, anthro, etc.)? And how might we address this? Or should we address it? The dean said if we didn't want to do the workshops, that's fine, but what OTHER suggestions would we have?   Any help here? Ideas? I don't think our standards are any higher than other social science professors' standards, in general. We have a large group - including a dozen adjuncts - but so do psych and history. I've been teaching for 35 years and I still feel as though I fail if a student earns a failing grade. So probably I'm taking this personally.   Still, I'm baffled.   Jack Estes BMCC/CUNY NYC --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Teaching Sociology" group. To post to this group, send email to teachsoc@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/teachsoc -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---