Grades Moderation

Blog Posted by Christine Phillips: 6/27/2013 4:57:00 AM

Dear Soupers:

Please help me to clarify the statement below. Thank you always for your valuable
comments.

Should class room instructors at all level have autonomy in the classroom or should students’ grades be moderated by other individuals after a grade has been assigned to each student? Please bear in mind that these moderators have not taught students and some of them are not educators. Please give reasons if your answer is yes or no.

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Richard D
Seal

Date: 6/29/2013 5:36:00 AM

I do hope you are going to tell us the point Christine. I am intrigued to hear your view and reveal the answer.

Richard D
Seal

Date: 6/28/2013 4:41:00 PM

If the students have been educated in the haphazard, contradictory and generally confusing way you have answered my questions, it is easy to see why the moderators act in the way they do. My answer is no, teachers should not have this total autonomy in the classroom. many teachers give better grades than they should, mainly to make themselves look better. There are lots of excellent teachers but the system is letting them down. To me the standard of education has been going downhill for years. The moderators merely sort the wheat from the chaff and that is not the fault of the students.

Christine Phillips
Date: 6/28/2013 11:25:00 PM

Thank you for your comments; however, you are still missing the point.

Vicky
Tsiluma

Date: 6/28/2013 2:31:00 AM

Hi, I remember what happened in a Statistics class, 90 percent of students got Ds, later all the results were scrapped. I inquired about it and the moderator said that in a class situation test results have to reflect a normal curve, ie, have a few students above average, most students average and a few below average. That’s the reason the passing grade is raised if many students do well and lowered when they don’t.

Christine Phillips
Date: 6/28/2013 9:05:00 AM

Hi Vicky thank you for your comments. However, this situation is different. The passing grades were lowered even though most of the students are average and did well on the test.

Richard D
Seal

Date: 6/27/2013 5:26:00 PM

A question first Christine. Do these moderators actually see any of the work done by your students?

Christine Phillips
Date: 6/28/2013 1:45:00 AM

When the exam grades are submitted they send for all the papers, then lower the students result and fail some of them.

Christine Phillips
Date: 6/28/2013 1:42:00 AM

Richard you are getting too personal here. Please discuss the issue from a general point of view. Do not pin me to students...because it is not related to my students...it is related to an entire university method of evaluation. To answer your question, they do not see the work done by students but evaluate them from the exam results. I hope that this is enough.

Richard D Seal
Date: 6/27/2013 7:18:00 PM

Hi Christine , Thank you for that, one more question then please. How do they assess your students, by what means?

Christine Phillips
Date: 6/27/2013 5:33:00 PM

Hi Richard. No. The moderators are in an head office in another place and they never visit the class, observe or have any connection or association with students. This is at the university level; not at the primary level.