Would You Score Your Students 39 And 69 Or Would You Add 1 To The Score?
Adding (+1) Mark, The Conscientious Marking Task Teachers Face.
On a very lighter note, as a teacher, would you score your student 69 or add 1 to the score? Ditto for 39!
If no, why?
- Assessment is meant to be an objective process, the human behind the process makes it largely subjective.
Someone said a student that scored 69 is as good as the one that scored 70, really? Also consider the impact of the above on the CGPA of the student:
NB: 60 - 69 is B
70 - 100 is A
39 is F
40 is pass
A teacher could feel 69 can be left without a 1 added, if in truth it doesn’t earn a 1 mark more. This is because of the purpose of assessment. It’s meant to reflect the TRUE ability of a student. It’s important that the student understands that he is a B student, and needs to work harder to become an A, than to dance and rejoice in the euphoria of a grade he didn’t earn, which can make him relax and even score much more less in the next assessment process.
For a 39 score, there can be a lot of subjectivity in place. If the teacher is aware of the efforts the student has put in place to get to that point, there might be a reconsideration. An additional mark to keep the students’ hopes up might be needed, especially for motivation and positive reinforcement. For this option, the teacher needs to clearly know where the student is coming from, and also understand the challenges.
If a student scores a 69, he/she has passed. It's not the same as a 39, for which he/she fails. some teachers may or may not even bother with the 69; However, if the student had had a perfect score up until that point, and that would ruin his/her chances, giving a +1 mark could be highly considered. Again, it depends the individual's(marker) respective values.
Read some other opinions:
onegoodhead.com/teachers-adding-1-mark-39-69/