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Zeameter
A way to measure a student’s effort | |
Pronounced: ze-a-me-ter , from the Hebrew word “ze-a” meaning sweat.
Family lore has it that this idea comes from my father’s Hebrew teacher, though I’m sure, in various forms, it can be traced back to prehistory. The idea is that you don’t rate students by how they did on some test (which is a skill
in itself), but rather in the *effort* they made to study the material in the course. The problem, of course, is how to implement this. Treading dangerously close to invoking scientific sounding mumbo jumbo “magic”, I will suggest the following approaches: Actually measuring sweat. Measuring brain activity. A “Neilson family”-type machine for what books/CD-ROMs/online sites you’re reading.
Yes, I do realize how Orwellian this all sounds. But I hear that some unfortunate souls have to endure this kind of invasion of privacy in their workplace. And these are adults that are used to far more freedom than grade school kids. In fact, if as a pupil I had an option of having a non-intrusive “net-nanny” attached to my glasses and therefore not have to do any of the finals, I might actually go for it
You can be sure that less than 30 seconds after such an apparatus would me created, there would be a black market for counter-zeameter devices for fooling the zeameter. But if you think of it, this is no different from the current methods of cheating. Just that now, you can simply invoke the ideal punishment- do the test.
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Bad idea, mostly because it won't match to the real world. Kid won't get a raise for giving effort, but results. Lets get that idea in their heads early. |
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I have to agree with bongmaster
on this idea. Once out in the
world, performance is the only
relevent factor. |
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However, I also don't see your idea
as a total loss. I don't think a
measure of 'effort' would be a
good way to grade at all, but I
could see where instructors could
use it to monitor the progress of
students. Perhaps as a measure of
a student's mastery of material,
when compared to traditional
scores based on performance. A
student that has mastered material
would do well on an assignment/
test and exert little effort in the
process. A student who grasps
material but still needs practice to
retain the knowledge might still do
well on assignments/tests but will
have to exert far more effort. |
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And as for those that do not do
well on tests, it would be possible
to separate those who do poorly
on assignments/tests due to
apathy from those who just are
not learning the information. The
"slackers" would measure little or
no 'effort' put forward and do
poorly, as opposed to the students
who try hard but may need extra
help to learn, who would
presumably show high 'effort'
measurements but still have low
grades. |
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So i think this idea *could* be a
welcome addition to the
educational system, but by no
means a replacement for grading. |
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