U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’
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Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’
#2The stated reason for doing this seems suspicious. A pass/fail dynamic would likely maintain student anxiety, if not increase it.
What I think is more likely is that this move will help them hire less qualified teachers and reduce administrative oversight as now they no longer have to worry about all the issues that come with grading, such as consistency, or the grades accurately reflecting performance. The quality of curriculum will likely drop significantly and this will be reflected in the student’s second year grades.
Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’
#3I'll just leave this here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coddling_of_the_American_M...
Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’
#4It sounds okay at first glance, but how many people are going to get saddled with an extra semester of debt now because they didn't figure out they weren't suite/ready for college yet but were just passed along through the first semester anyways?
Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’
#5research tilts towards grades not helping learners in contrast to non-quantitative feedback so there's that.
Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’
#6It's been a while since I was in college, but mine gave the bare minimum credit hours (3 classes) to qualify as a full time student and the classes were brain-dead easy. That seemed like a good compromise to get students used to the college life.
Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’
#7research tilts towards grades not helping learners in contrast to non-quantitative feedback so there's that.
Huh, I never considered that grades might be intended to help the person learning. I always assumed they were just intended as a signal to the rest of the world that they had learned something.
Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’
#8The stated reason for doing this seems suspicious. A pass/fail dynamic would likely maintain student anxiety, if not increase it. What I think is more likely is that this move will help them hire less qualified teachers and reduce administrative oversight as now they no longer have to worry about all the issues that come with grading, such as consistency, or the grades accurately reflecting performance. The quality o…
Hire less qualified teachers, move to even larger class sizes with less support, and move more teachers into administrative roles, furthering the decline of education.
Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’
#9It's been a while since I was in college, but mine gave the bare minimum credit hours (3 classes) to qualify as a full time student and the classes were brain-dead easy. That seemed like a good compromise to get students used to the college life.
Probably varies on area of study. Many engineering students take prerequisites with intense course load their first year.
Re: U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’
#10The stated reason for doing this seems suspicious. A pass/fail dynamic would likely maintain student anxiety, if not increase it. What I think is more likely is that this move will help them hire less qualified teachers and reduce administrative oversight as now they no longer have to worry about all the issues that come with grading, such as consistency, or the grades accurately reflecting performance. The quality o…
The pass fail dynamic won't increase anxiety if you tell everyone to not fail students, though.