Greg Vandagriff

I think the ultimate measure of how secure a professor is in his ability to teach can be found in his grading policy: the less a grade hinges on class attendance, the more confident he is that his lectures are worth attending for the sake of mastering the subject itself. Why do I say this? Because by penalizing students for failing to attend a lecture, a professor implies that the content of that lecture doesn’t carry enough educational “weight” on its own to merit attendance… that is unless he attaches a concrete, tangible benefit such as “points”.

Perhaps it would be more clear if I were to construct a hypothetical situation to illustrate my point: Professor North and Professor South both teach the same subject at the same university, perhaps chemistry, perhaps english; the course itself is irrelevant.

Professor North

Professor North has a simple grading system: a student’s grade is entirely determined by one test taken at the end of the semester. There is a textbook available for the course, as well as homework assignments. These materials are recommended, but optional; no credit is given for their presence or absence on any given day. The class has regularly held lectures and a student’s attendance is recommended, but not required.

Professor South

Professor South has a more complicated grading system, with portions of a student’s final grade being derived from homework assignments, labs, quizzes, midterms, and of course, the final. There is a textbook required in order to do the homework assignments and each day of class consists of a simple quiz on the previous day’s reading assignments.

Which professor is more confident in his ability to teach his subject? In my opinion it is Professor North. He knows that if a student wants to pass his class, they’re going to attend his lectures. Period. Professor South, however, is bridled with insecurity regarding his ability to teach the course material. In fact, I would venture to say that Professor South’s ultimate fear is to be confronted with the fact that his lectures, once stripped of his daily quizzes, aren’t worth attending for their own sake. So what does Professor South do? He flees from this fear.

He establishes an intricate network of grading checkpoints to ensure the regular attendance of his students. This way, he will never be forced to confront his fear directly. As long as students are attending his class, even if only for the sake of getting points for their attendance, he can at least entertain the fantasy that his lectures are worthwhile; that the students would still attend them even if there weren’t daily quiz points at stake.

Are there other factors at play here? Yes. In Part II, I’ll explore some of those points, including the economic and institutional elements which pertain to the issue as well as the long-term ramifications of this pervasive academic fear.

But again, what do I know? I’m just a foolish college student.