- In the eyes of an economist, my students were “misbehaving.” By that I mean that their behavior was inconsistent with the idealized model at the heart of much of economics. Rationally, no one should be happier about a score of 96 out of 137 (70 percent) than 72 out of 100, but my students were. And by realizing this, I was able to set the kind of exam I wanted but still keep the students from grumbling.
The article gets deeper into behavioral economics, but lil, you should try this on your students and see what happens!
I read the whole article which proves that in many areas (marks, economics), supposedly irrelevant factors (SIFS) matter a lot. My students are actually Spock-like econs. They do math. I'm trying to teach them that there are many SIFS at work in most other people. As for making all my quizzes out of 137, so that 96 will seem like a better mark than 72 out of 100 - luckily I don't have to do that. Here's how I mark my pass/fail course: You have to do all the work I assign, and do it "at a graduate level." If it's not done at a graduate level, I'll send it back to you. It's a stupid crazy amount of work. I'd love to just have one test out of 137, and I would if I taught something quantifiable. Ask me sometime what "at a graduate level" means or better still, hubski, help me create a definition.
Graduate level: professional, well though out, perfect grammar - punctuation and spelling, thought provoking. Help me figure out the rest. If I had a teacher that thought the way you do,perhaps my marks would have been better when I was a student.
Happy they weren't failing. Here's a nice test. Incentive - date the teacher ( fun date, only Fun!), get to personalize 30 minutes of class per week (each student gets a shot), teacher treats everyone to pizza, cake, and placebo drugs (sugar pills) where everyone gets to act drugged up... Am I a bad influence? Should I be punished for this?
Wait, what? I don't see the relationship between these incentives and the article. The raising of the grade-point maximum from 100 to 137 was to show that the students would complain less when getting the same percentage grade on the exam, despite the irrationality of being happier about 92/137 versus 72/100
I saw the idea in the article, and I came up with my own which happens to be rather delinquent, and I apologize for that, and yes the teacher did a fine job (but where's the fun). We as human beings need to be irrational once in a while, because we are free to choose, while a computer isn't
haha alright I got you. Interesting idea that we'd be inclined to be irrational simply by having the choice.
There's our biggest problem , we have the choice(s), that's why we do what we do, well, that and some people are weaker and more susceptible. For instance, I was given a choice that 50% would pass, so I took it. I was given another choice, to pass as long as my absent days didn't exceed a certain amount, so I wsd quite absent. Yet when I was given no other choice but to excel, I did so, no wonder one of my classmates wondered how I got a better mark in art class when I didn't go, or do my homework. I simply had no other choice than to boost my % with a major assignment/project.