[sill: Re: [Tutor] help ;-)]

[dman]

On Fri, Oct 19, 2001 at 11:27:58PM -0500, Chris Keelan wrote:
| On Fri, 19 Oct 2001, dman wrote:
| 
| [snip]
| 
| > I like the no-tests no-grades perspective.  Instead the educator(s)
| > should be able to testify on the student's behalf to those who want to
| > know whether or not the student is capable of a given task.  The more
| > people a person works with/for the more people who know what the
| > person is capable of.  References are better than numbers, I think.
| 
| Only playing Devil's Advocate here, but how does the above merit system work 
| with class sizes of 100+ students? When I was in university (admittedly not 
| in CS) many of the profs never knew our names, much less were able to comment 
| on our grasp of course content. 

This system doesn't really work in that context.  I have had only one
class (General Chemistry I) that was of that magnitude.  I can't speak
for other schools or majors, but most of my classes are fairly small
(12-30 students) and many of them have a lab associated with the class
that is smaller than the class (for example, 1 lecture section and 2
lab sections).  Also, the higher level the course the fewer students
there are.  As a student progresses, it becomes more likely that the
profs will get to know the student, especially if the student
consistently does well.

Also, the teacher/prof isn't the only person who can testify as to the
student's capabilities.  Any person can.  Obviously, then, it is up to
the investigator (employer, whoever) to evaluate the weight the
reference should hold.

| > If I work with someone, I see what the person is capable of.  I don't
| > care what grades they got, I know what they can do.  Too bad the world
| > isn't honest enough to operate like this.
| 
| I don't think that honesty is necessarily the issue.

Suppose you fail miserably at some task or course or whatever.  Then
you and your friends get together and agree to lie and say that you
are excellent at it.  It can be an issue.

| Just sticking my nose where it doesn't belong, as usual.

You can do that in a public forum ;-)?


Certainly my idea is rather idealistic and not likely to happen in
practice.

-D