Additional Tasks

Page 27

Yes, they should.

Students must be involved making the rules but of course with the guidance of the teacher. What I mean
is they must discuss how should rules be done and if it would help effective learning to happen. You
know, students are ones concerned with these rules that's why their ideas are very well welcome.

They are more likely to follow the rules if they make them. Plus it can show the students responsibility
and it can teach them so many more life lessons including team work and decision making. I think its a
great idea to let the students help.

Student Input Encourages Responsibility

Students would be far better off mentally if they were allowed to help in the process of creating
classroom rules. If the experiment were taken even further, the students could use the rules that only
they created and learn how their own rules do not meet the requirements necessary to maintain a
healthy learning environment. Ideally, students, teachers, and administrator's would help to create a
complete list of rules.

Student Input Encourages Responsibility

Students would be far better off mentally if they were allowed to help in the process of creating
classroom rules. If the experiment were taken even further, the students could use the rules that only
they created and learn how their own rules do not meet the requirements necessary to maintain a
healthy learning environment. Ideally, students, teachers, and administrator's would help to create a
complete list of rules.

Page 29

Q.1 WHAT IS "FAIRNESS" ANYWAY?

When assessing instructor "fairness," a student doesn't usually consider the intentions of the
instructor, but rather his or her perception of the instructor's behavior or policies.
Rodabaugh's [1] typology of perceived fairness includes 3 components.

1. interactional fairnessinteraction between instructor and students

2. procedural fairnessrules for grading and classroom administration
3. outcome fairnessdistribution of scores and grades

Interactional Fairness

Students consider breaches of these principles to be the most egregious [1].

IMPARTIALITY

Students expect an instructor to treat everyone in the class equally. Very few
instructors intentionally favor certain students over others, but it's probably impossible
not to like some students more than others. Differences in liking may foster differences
in interactions, such as allowing certain students to dominate discussions. Even subtle
differences in how students are treated may lead students to perceive partiality where
none exists. To avoid those perceptions, carefully monitor your behavior and
interactions with all students.

RESPECT

Students expect an instructor to listen, consider, and thoughtfully reply to their ideas,
even when they challenge the instructor's views. An instructor perceived as impatient or
demeaningeither directly through comments or indirectly through tone of voice, facial
expressions or postureloses students' respect. Should you experience disrespectful
behavior, try to remain civil and calm, modeling appropriate behavior for students. It's
always appropriate to meet privately with an offending student to communicate
expectations for classroom behavior.

CONCERN FOR STUDENTS

Care about your students and their academic performance. Learn and use their names,
talk to them before and after class, answer questions thoroughly, and invite students
who appear to be having problems with the course to discuss those problems and
potential solutions. Consider student complaints, take remedial action when the
complaints are valid, and carefully explain your position when the complaints are not
valid.

INTEGRITY

Above all, be consistent and truthful, explaining your policies, procedures, and decisions
and why they are necessary. For example, you can justify a strict attendance policy
because attendance is correlated with increased learning and better grades. Explaining
the educational goals of various types of assignments can also be effective. Integrity also
involves delivering promised rewards and penalties, and if you don't know the answer to
a question, admit it!

PROPRIETY

Propriety means acting in a socially acceptable manner and not offending students'
sensibilities. Most students find it inappropriate in most or all circumstances for an
instructor to tell an off-color story or joke, or to consistently use coarse language.
Students expect instructors to respect their privacy; do not require students to reveal
highly personal information in an assignment or class discussion. Most importantly, you
must maintain an appropriate social distance.
Procedural Fairness

Students rate principles of "Procedure" second in importance to those of

"Interaction" [1].

COURSE WORKLOAD

Instructors often dismiss students' claims that the workload is too heavy in a course.
While it is true that a reasonable course workload can be perceived as too heavy by
students who are employed, involved in extracurricular activities, or are ill-prepared for
the course, some workloads can be too heavy. If you feel pressed to include everything
you think must be covered in a course, most students will feel overloaded. It's important
to consider student class-level and ability when designing a course. A course for the
general student population should be less technical than one designed for majors. Many
first-year students are learning study skills along with the course content, and the
difficulty of the course should be calibrated accordingly.

TESTS

Three factors help a test appear fair to students:

1. All the material on the test is relevant to the course's objectives and was covered in
lectures, readings or both. If you reuse test questions, double-check them to ensure their
currency with revised lectures or changed textbooks.
2. The test is appropriate in difficulty for the course. Students are especially offended by
overly difficult tests that seem designed to flunk people out of a course for the
convenience of the faculty, or to adjust grade distribution to faculty expectations.
3. The test is well-designed, with clearly phrased questions and unambiguous multiple-
choice response options.

PROVISION OF FEEDBACK

Providing prompt, constructive feedback on the results of tests and assignments is

pedagogically sound and helps students perceive you as being fair and concerned about
their progress. The feedback you provide should tell students the questions they got
right or wrong, but also explain why wrong answers are incorrectespecially for items
missed by a substantial number of students. Meaningful feedback takes relatively little
time (even in large classes) and greatly increases student goodwill.

RESPONSIVENESS TO STUDENTS

In addition to providing feedback to students, you also should solicit and respond to
feedback from students. For example, give serious consideration to student complaints
that a test question was ambiguous or had more than one correct answer, and take
remedial action when such complaints are valid. When distributing assignments, make
sure students understand the grading criteria, and be sure to solicit and answer
questions about the requirements, procedures, deadlines and outcomes.
Outcome Fairness

If deprived of the grades they think they deserve, students may be tempted to cheat.

FOLLOW INSTITUTIONAL PRACTICE

A department, college, or university may have specific policies concerning the

distribution of each grade that may be given. When there is no formal policy, the actual
distributions of grades in similar courses provide informal guidelines. Students compare
grades with peers and will likely feel cheated if their grades for comparable performance
are lower than those of students in course sections taught by other instructors. Students
who feel cheated may reciprocate by cheating.

USE ACCURATE ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS

Grades on tests, papers, and assignments should accurately reflect student performance.
Continually review and update assessment instruments to ensure their accuracy. If you
reuse test questions, check them when changing textbooks or updating lectures.
Questions that are poorly worded, ambiguous, or ask about topics not covered in class or
readings reduce assessment accuracy. It's useful to have a student who's completed the
course read questions for clarity.

MAKE MULTIPLE ASSESSMENTS

Some students feel they do better on objective tests, and others prefer term papers or
essay tests. Consequently, you should provide your students with a variety of ways to
exhibit their understanding so their strengths can offset weaknesses. Multiple
evaluations also provide more accurate information about student performance than
just one measure.

TELL STUDENTS HOW THEY WILL BE GRADED

The course syllabus should inform students what assessments you will use and the
weight each will have in determining course grades. Be clear about how grades will be
determined and your rationale for using that grading method. For example, based on
preset grade scales or relative ranking in the class (grading on the curve), and your
rationale.

BASE GRADES ON INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

Students want their grades to reflect their performance, not the performance of other
students. Grades based on preset cutoffs may be more satisfying to students than grades
based on performance relative to the class mean. Students expect to be graded
individually for their contribution to group work. Individual performance on a
collaborative project could include peer assessments or individual papers based on the
assignment.
DON'T CHANGE POLICIES MIDCOURSE

Students expect grading policies to be firm. If you make alterations, you should fully
explain and justify the changes. Ideally, the revised policy should benefit students (for
example, a new opportunity to earn points toward final grades) but should at least
balance costs and benefits.

Q2.