Grading Behaviour.

In both my ECS 350 and ECS 410 classes, we have recently had discussions and debates on whether or not a student's behaviour should reflect their mark.  This is a really interesting topic that has opened my eyes to a viewpoint that I wouldn't have previously seen. 

During my elementary and high school careers, I was always the "good" student.  I wouldn't come late to class, I would always put a great deal of effort into assignments and hand them in on time, and I was attentive in class.  When classmates wouldn't hand things in on time, it always irked me.  I'm not entirely sure why, but it usually boiled down "if I got it done, why couldn't you".  Which I now realize is a terrible attitude.

Coming from this place, I would think I weigh behaviour quite highly.  Being a courtious student was clearly important to me.  It still is, but in a different way.  I now understand that people are different from me -- different backgrounds, different issues, as so on.

In my 350 class, we had a case study in a math class that had three very different students:

• A student that very rarely showed up and distracted others when he would, but knew what he was doing and gets 90% on every exam.
• A student who showed up every day, was okay at assignments, but did very poorly on tests
• A student who was a single mother, so she is unable to show up every day, went into the class with a grade 3 level of math, but was improving.  She now has a grade 4 math literacy level.

We were asked to discuss who should be passing the class/have the better mark in the class.  It is very strange to think about, as my intuition would say that the latter two students should be rewarded for their hard work, and the first one should be punished for not being a good student.  Now, however, the biggest question needs to be asked: who hit the outcomes of the class?  The first one did, and the other two did not.  According to outcomes, which is what educators want to strive to hit, the first student should pass the class while the other two would fail it.

Now, however, some rational can be had if we look at the Saskatchewan Curriculum's Broad Areas of Learning.  Could this first student be considered a lifelong learner or an engaged citizen?  The attitude he presents would disagree, but these BALs are not the biggest focus in the classrooms today.

My stance on this is still slightly up in the air.  I think that students need to be held accountable for their actions (late assignments, missing classes, etc) because we do want engaged citizens for the future, but people need leeway.