It Will Never End

Week 29 (of 38) – April 8 to 13, 2019

Thank you George Couros for posting this today on Instagram. Needed it. Soon after last week and ending the term with the Celebration of Learning on April 5th, it was marking time. The way I designed the course was to have students engage in the course content with ongoing reflections and writing throughout the 13-week course, partake in 4-iterations with a case study to see how their thinking was evolving over time as they acquired professional knowledge over time, and conclude the course with their own case study and analysis. Conceptually, it sounds great. Reality, it was a lot to read. Much of what we worked on was formative. The final case study and fourth iteration a was summative. A long story made short, the story continues. I spent a week reading through student work, but realizing that “holistic” grading (which is aligned to my pedagogy) is not aligned to the grading process that we all know (and love… I suppose). Count every mark. I’ll admit, every counts but not everything counts. What kind of change am I expecting as an instructor. I want to focus on learning… but the demonstration of learning varies in quality… and how do you “count” that? I will continue to wrestle with my ethical dilemma. What’s more important? Student achievement or student learning? Sadly, they are not equal.