Professor Kris

Why do you go to school? Take a moment think of three goals you had/have in school (i.e. why are you taking this class?). Did grades make the list? Because for most student's its #1, when really it shouldn't even be on the list at all. The problem is, we've framed education around grades. Grades were never supposed to be the reason for school. But from early in education, teachers talk about content in terms of grades: "this will be on the test";  "you'll need to know this for the test";  "you need to work on this to get a good grade".   Students are being taught that they are in school to get good grades - not to learn. So what is the purpose of a grade? Grades are a way to provide students feedback on assessments of how much they have learned and where they still need to focus their efforts. The purpose of assessments (i.e. quizzes, tests, exams...) is that it allows both instructors and students to see that a student has...

Advanced students can be the hardest to engage and motivate in classroom material, while alpha students tend to prevent engagement of those around them in the class. New teachers often worry about how to motivate and engage the kids at the lower end of the achievement scale in their class, believing these are the students that have the largest impact on their class success. However, it is the super advanced and “alpha” students who have the most influence over class culture. So how do we handle these highly influential students? First, let’s distinguish between advanced and alpha students. An advanced student already has mastery over the material covered in class to the point where they are bored by the content, and when they participate, they finish assignments very quickly. This boredom can lead to behavior issues that spill over to disrupt the other students’ learning in the classroom. Alpha students are the student who takes over due to excitement about knowledge- think Herm...