Criteria for Grading

In the last few years, I’ve thought a lot about appropriate approaches to grading in my different courses, and I’ve even pushed the boundaries of what academics think appropriate in some. On Monday in my seminar on international finance, we had a discussion of what grades mean and how they should be determined in the context of our course. (This discussion was modeled after Barbara Ganley‘s approach.)

Parts of the discussion, for example the part about how one demonstrates ‘insights’, were tough going for the students. This is a brighter than average group, but I got the feeling that they didn’t know what to say, that this isn’t something they’d been asked before.

I took notes and today posted a revised version of them as the “class rules” for grading.