Re: [Phys-l] not our majors now!

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 10/05/2006 05:34 PM, trappe@physics.utexas.edu wrote:

> Trying to "keep the honest people honest" only works to promote the  
> dishonest advantage.

That's important.  That really touched a nerve with me.

Concerning homework, there are three main possibilities:
 a) They do the homework in the "canonical" way, actually working it
  out (as opposed to just looking up the answers).
 b) They don't do the homework at all, not even pretending to do it.
 c) They pretend to do the homework.  This includes mindlessly looking
  up the answers.

In my opinion:
 A) Case (a) is obviously OK, indeed desirable.
 B) Case (b) is OK, in the sense of being tolerable.
 C) Case (c) is associated with some sort of terrible problem.

It "should" be obvious that a student who doesn't do the homework
hurts only himself, depriving himself of whatever he might have
learned by doing the homework.  But I put "should" in scare quotes,
because what "should" be is not always what /is/.

There is a millenia-old saying that cheaters never prosper.  How
then do we reconcile that with Karl's observation that dishonesty
sometimes confers an advantage (or seeming advantage)?

As I see it, the answer must be connected to the never-ending
questions about what grades mean.  I certainly don't know what
grades mean, but one purpose they are "supposed" to serve is to
provide a near-term reward for good behavior, thereby motivating
students who can't yet clearly see the long-term rewards of good
behavior.

Now we have a situation where something -- grades, I assume -- is
motivating students to "do" the homework in a way that doesn't
involve actual learning.  That's terrible.  Sometimes they do it
in a way that is outright dishonest.  That's even worse.  That's
close to the worst possible outcome.  Empty symbols (grades) are
riding roughshod over reality (actual learning).

It seems obvious to me that if grading the homework motivates any
significant fraction of the students to "do" the homework without
learning anything, it would be better to leave the homework ungraded.

Here's a possibly-constructive suggestion for an alternative:
 -- Assign homework.
 -- Collect the homework.  Correct the homework and pass it back.
  But don't grade the homework.  There is a world of difference
  between correcting a paper and grading a paper.
 -- At frequent intervals (maybe even every class, especially
  early in the year) have an in-class quiz consisting of one
  or two problems verrry similar to homework problems.  Grade
  the quizzes.
  The point is that anyone who _understood_ the homework will
  do well on the quiz.  (Sad to say, you will have to _explain_
  the relationship between homework and quizzes;  otherwise
  there will be some who guessed it would be OK to blow off
  the homework, and won't easily figure out where the quizzes
  are coming from.)


If this system is working, the obvious indication is that the
students will do well on the quizzes.   A less-obvious but nice
indication is that the better students will blow off the easy
parts of the homework, but do the more-challenging parts and
turn them in to be corrected.

I'm not saying this system is perfect, but at least gets rid
of *some* of the worst diametrically-wrong motivations.