Louis,
I agree in great part with wht you said, but I don't think that this is
an issue of what grades mean (that is a _very_ important separate issue).
The
question that I was trying to raise, and I think that Jeff was trying to
raise in his original post was where do we draw the line and say that
someone is clearly out of step with the rest of the academic community.
Reductio ad absurdum: would you not question a prof who, semester after
semester, failed every student in his class? Or, conversely, should we
make no comment regarding a prof who, semester after semester, gave out
nothing but A+ to every student. The question is twofold: At what point
do you decide that an individual or group is giving out grades that are
clearly inconsitent with everyone else and then what do you do about it?
BTW I think that it would be a mistake to confuse this with an issue of
academic rigour. My cut points for A, B, etc. are higher than those of
most of my colleagues and yet I hand out aproximately the same number of
As, Bs, etc. My research methods students tell me (via course evaluation
surveys) that my course is far more difficult than their other courses
and requires far more work yet my grade allocation is consistent with the
rest of the department.
-Don.
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Don Allen email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dept. of Psychology voice: (604)-323-5871
Langara College fax: (604)-323-5555
100 W. 49th Ave.
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada, V5Y 2Z6
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