Melady- I think you'd be well within your "rights" to flunk them. But what would it accomplish. One of the things I constantly try to get across to my colleagues (outside of psychology, of course) is that just because you CAN make up (find?) a plausible story to explain a student's behavior does not mean it is the correct story (The freudian's in the humanities are notorious for being difficult to convince of that one). I'd look at the over all record of the students. Is this their first transgression or have they a reputation for those types of "short-cuts". (Our dean keeps records of all such incidents if they are reported by the instructor but we are a small school). I think you make only a fair case based on them missing the context cues in such a situation. Many students are completely wiped out during finals and the records of such fiascos are large in number. (Ok- so my name is attached to a few of them. I once went early to a music theory final - really industrous effort- I went two hours early. Unfortunately, I had the time wrong and was "only" 45 minutes late. I missed most of the ear training exam and pulled my grade down half a letter grade.) I've also gotten distracted and nearly forgotten an exam- luckly my students came and got their absent-minded professor. It may be true that they made an error but if missing cues in the finals week is the only "evidence" I think you may have a logical problem. You say they do better on multiple-choice than exams with short answer. But you also said the course content wasn't exactly the same. I'd have to be pretty sure of a HUGE benefit of multiple-choice to take a test/exam over different content! Anyway, I'm an old softy- according to my own judgement. (Well- I do give the fewest A's in the department but I give too many B's as well). I suppose my summary, since I seem to have become a bit of the defense counselor here, is that your case against them isn't quite as good as you seemed to say (unless, which is quite possible, you know more). I think that finals is stressful enough and probably more so for "Asian's". Personally, I wouldn't let them get away with it but I think a zero is too harsh. On the other hand, I did not have 250 students total last semester and I can only vaguely remember the stress of grading that many papers and exams from earlier jobs. Actually it seems more like other lives right now. Maybe add an assignment where they have to explain in detail why this was irresponsible, what they would do if they were the instructor, and what they will do to see that it does not happen again. Actually, I'm quite sure you'll handle it quite well. My students did when I screwed up. Best of luck- Tim
********************************************** Timothy O. Shearon, Ph.D. Department of Psychology (Chairperson) Albertson College of Idaho Caldwell, Idaho ph- 208-459-5840 teaching interests: neuropsychology, history of psychology, developmental (topical), intro -----Original Message----- From: Melady Preece [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2002 3:01 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: Help with a problem? Two students from my section of Research Methods (class size = 250) just notified me that they accidentally took the exam for another section of the same course. It was given in the room next to the room my exam was given in. I was in my room, and the other professor was in his. My name and the other professor's name were at the top of our respective exams, along with the section number. My T.A. was invigilating my exam, his T.A. was invigilating his (just trying to emphasize the number of contextual cues). Further, his exam was all multiple choice, while mine involved several short answer questions, and 3 essays. Some of the content is similar, but most was quite different. I had told the students the exact composition of the exam beforehand. Students must pass this course to be admitted to the Psych major. Many of my international students do more poorly on written exams than on multiple choice, because of their poor English skills. Both of these students are Asian. Should I give the students the grade they got on the other professor's exam? Should I give them a make-up exam? Should I give them a zero? I would appreciate any thoughts... Melady Preece --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
