Pros And Cons Of Borderline Cases
BORDERLINERS: FAIL OR FAIL NOT – A TEACHER’S DILEMMA
Am I giving an academically at-risk student favors in blindly passing him? Letting a student pass a class in which he’d barely learned anything, in the hopes that he will catch up later and benefit from having moved along, or flunking a student and making him dig in at least a bit, was a difficult call- and an age-old question. This is especially true with borderline cases. This is when the “sound” discretion of the teacher comes in, the plus and the minuses, playing around with the numbers.
This is law school. Should we still play with the numbers or just stick with it? Would it be better to pass all the students who are in the borderline cases to give them the chance to catch up later …show more content…
I know, there’s a huge debate about social promotion (i.e. the kid’s self esteem, etc.) but for me we’re not doing students any favors by passing them now when they haven’t mastered course content just to fail them later because the gaps in their knowledge prevent them from mastering the next grade’s content. That’s not being respectful of our students. In the same vein, it’s unfair for law students to let them go and face the tough bar examinations giving them false hopes because we passed them in our subjects. I think the bar has to be set somewhere. It’s horrible to fail students who, for whatever reason (be it learning skills, worklife, family situation) do not demonstrate proficiency. But I think it does a greater disservice to give them a false sense of their …show more content…
When I looked at it again today I saw that I could have almost just as easily justified passing this student. I do believe this student is borderline and does have at least one verifiable reason for failing and does need to take the class again, but perhaps I could have just been generous and given the "pass" because decent effort was made. Just a thought for now I am confronted again by the same problem. I have these students whom I guess are bright enough to pass the bar but really bad happen to them during the semester. I have also the not-so-bright student who worked really hard but still bombed the term exam. I feel sorry for a student of mine who really doesn’t put much effort in class, he/she shows up, makes slightly inane comments/answers, do the reporting in a manner that indicate very little effort. These students are in the borderline cases. Should I fail them or fail them
Am I giving an academically at-risk student favors in blindly passing him? Letting a student pass a class in which he’d barely learned anything, in the hopes that he will catch up later and benefit from having moved along, or flunking a student and making him dig in at least a bit, was a difficult call- and an age-old question. This is especially true with borderline cases. This is when the “sound” discretion of the teacher comes in, the plus and the minuses, playing around with the numbers.
This is law school. Should we still play with the numbers or just stick with it? Would it be better to pass all the students who are in the borderline cases to give them the chance to catch up later …show more content…
I know, there’s a huge debate about social promotion (i.e. the kid’s self esteem, etc.) but for me we’re not doing students any favors by passing them now when they haven’t mastered course content just to fail them later because the gaps in their knowledge prevent them from mastering the next grade’s content. That’s not being respectful of our students. In the same vein, it’s unfair for law students to let them go and face the tough bar examinations giving them false hopes because we passed them in our subjects. I think the bar has to be set somewhere. It’s horrible to fail students who, for whatever reason (be it learning skills, worklife, family situation) do not demonstrate proficiency. But I think it does a greater disservice to give them a false sense of their …show more content…
When I looked at it again today I saw that I could have almost just as easily justified passing this student. I do believe this student is borderline and does have at least one verifiable reason for failing and does need to take the class again, but perhaps I could have just been generous and given the "pass" because decent effort was made. Just a thought for now I am confronted again by the same problem. I have these students whom I guess are bright enough to pass the bar but really bad happen to them during the semester. I have also the not-so-bright student who worked really hard but still bombed the term exam. I feel sorry for a student of mine who really doesn’t put much effort in class, he/she shows up, makes slightly inane comments/answers, do the reporting in a manner that indicate very little effort. These students are in the borderline cases. Should I fail them or fail them