A teacher in my department told me she gives a student a zero on assignments assigned when the student has an unexcused absence. Now, I have discussed my feelings on grading and late work before, so my response was “how does that help the student?” This created an interesting exchange between us. While we do not agree, we did have a great conversation.
My contention is that holding a student’s grade hostage is not an effective motivator. If a student is habitually absent, I’m willing to conjecture that grades are not foremost on the student’s mind. This also feels overly punitive to me since every psychology class I’ve ever taken details how reward is more effective than coercion for changing behavior. Read the rest of this entry »
