I’m not sure where I stand on this, and it’s probably not a G.D., so I’ll put it here to let others weigh in and if it becomes great and or a debate it can be moved.
Let me make the disclaimer: I have not read this student’s exam paper nor have I heard her instructor’s side, I am going completely on the student’s version.
A student at the college where I work is challenging the grade she received for her biology final. Her version is that she was asked to explain a certain premise about the relationship between beneficial mutation and evolutionary change on her final. According to the student, she answered the question thoroughly and, according to the book and her notes, accurately, explaining the whole “mutation + heredity + benefit = more offspring” etc. (I know I’m oversimplifying) and that the professor said she answered the question well, except for a final two sentence or so blip that read something to the effect of:
“Though it is the standard scientific theory, various issues of evolution remain unexplained and or controversial. For this reason, many people believe that the process is divinely inspired and directed.”
For this, according to the student, the professor deducted several points from the essay, writing that it was “completely irrelevant to the answer”.
Now, I’ve heard enough student said/professor said disputes over the years to know that they’re not always “fair and balanced” accounts and that you often need to divide their version by at least 1.75 or so for the truth (and that goes for some professors as well). However, for the sake of argument let’s say that all of the above are true: the student gave the “right” answer and it would have received full credit without the final two sentences. Let’s assume that the the student did not say “this is how it works”, just “this is what many people think”, and that the professor really did deduct the points as noted, and it lowered her test and her grade for the quarter a letter grade.
Who would you side with: the professor or the student? I can honestly see a case either way. I completely agree with the “this is irrelevant” part, but as long as the question was answered I’m not sure I’d have taken off for it.
I’d say that if it’s irrelevant to the answer, then it’s also irrelevant to the grade she should receive. He should have graded based solely on the information she provided that he viewed as relevant.
Professor. A scientific based answer is expected for a Biology test, and there is no scientific controversy over evolution, nor are there many scientists that argue intelligent design. Adding the last two sentences implies a debate over the validity of evolution, and in the context of a Biology class there simply isn’t.
Right, the “This is irrelevant” note belongs there. More over as a science professor I’d be worried that this person might very well not have a clear understand of the scientific process to believe this nonsense. But then again, that too is irrelevant to the question. The student ultimately gave the correct answer so she probably should not have been marked down.
I agree with those who say that if it was irrelevant, then it ought to be irrelevant to her grade, as well. If her answer was 100% correct, then she should have been given credit.
And frankly, her last two sentences were not necessarily incorrect, either. It is true that there are many things that are in dispute about evolution and because of that, many people choose to believe these things are divinely inspired. She is NOT saying that she personally believes that nor that she thinks that line of thinking is “right”. Maybe it’s just the humanities major in me, but she’s completely and factually answering the question to the professor’s liking AND she’s giving the current social implication of the answer. That’s a good answer, to me. Of course, that might be the exact reason I’m not a bio major (that and my lack of mathematical skill).
Biology major here. I’ve gotten graded down for providing too much information on a geology exam (the professor was really into precise answers). In that context he can certainly grade her down. After all, the question was about biology, not the public’s opinion of biology.
From what you’ve written I can’t tell for sure, but it sounds like it may indeed have been completely irrelevant to the question that was asked, in such a way that the professor was justified in deducting points.
If a student includes things that aren’t relevant to the question asked, in answering any essay question, a strong case could be made that it shows that the student doesn’t know what is and is not relevant to the question, that the student mistakenly thinks what she wrote is relevant, and therefore she should be penalized.
Not having a scientific background in or outside of academia I’ve tried to bring it to terra firma. I’m imagining I’m a history prof who’s asked for an essay on “How did Lincoln’s assassination affect Reconstruction?” and gotten a student who answered it well enough but concluded with remarks about how “some believe Stanton was behind the assassination” (an actual theory [in the NON-SCIENTIFIC definition of theory but one that few if any historians take seriously). I’d probably say “Irrelevant” but not count off and just ignore it.
OTOH, science has far more absolute standards than the humanities.
That’s one legitimate way to grade essay questions, but it does encourage the “Throw as much bullshit at the question as I can and see what sticks” approach to answering them, where the student just writes down everything she can think of without worrying about how (or whether) it pertains to the actual question that was asked. (Not that I’m implying that’s what the student mentioned by the OP did.)
That’s been the case on most essay tests I’ve taken. Don’t write stuff the prof doesn’t want to read, grading essay tests is a bear to start with and if you make them wade through shit to find the pearls of wisdom, don’t be surprised when the shit has stained the pearls.
Granted, this was more a one liner than making the prof wade through, but if its irrelvency where a prof has asked for a terse and relevant essay answer, it doesn’t make much difference.
I’d definitely favor leaving a note marking the irrelevance of those lines to the rest of the question, but I think marking it down is stupid. It’s not like the student went on some tirade about how evolution is wrong and didn’t answer the question.
I’m with the “irrelevant to grade and to essay” comment. Assuming the student’s story is true, it’s not a case of someone taking the shotgun approach to writing, where they just throw down every bit of info they have and hope the professor cherry-picks the right stuff. It’s just a bit of fluff thrown in at the end.
People who did this irritated the heck out of me when I was TAing and grading 600 physics essay question exams. The people who got A’s generally wrote a tenth as much as the ones who got C’s and D’s. That wasn’t because I downgraded them for quantity though, it was because a) The more you write the higher your chance of writing something wrong. and b) The people who did this generally didn’t have as good a grasp on the material as the confident, concise ones.
As for the OP, I would have likely made a comment about the irrelevance to the question as asked, but I would not have downgraded an otherwise stellar explanation for it.
I have a friend from college who got a B on a paper in a religion class because ( in her opinion) she threw in a line or two to the effect of “Oh, by the way, John wrote John”.
She has nothing favorable to say about that professor. Although, if she’d gotten the A she thought the paper deserved, she still wouldn’t have much favorable to say about that professor.
Context is everything, and it seems to me that downgrading a student on a biology exam for a true but irrelevant sentence or two on I. D. only makes sense if there is some backstory. Such as a general warning that clear, complete, but concise answers will get better grades than unclear, complete and rambling ones. Or a mention at some time in the course that I.D. is a hot-button topic with you (or in the media) but is not relevant to this course.
And, if I were the instructor, I’d think twice or three times about taking off points for something like that if doing so were likely to change the student’s grade, and thus lead to the whole challenge process. Instructors should not appear to be arbitrary, capricious, and inclined to prefer their pet theories over the objective truth. (Not that I.D. is exactly objective truth, and many of the reasons why I.D. is popular today would be better explored in a sociology classs than a biology one (in my opinion. Not that you needed the disclaimer).)
The student’s comment is indeed irrelevant. And I don’t see a problem with docking her a few points.
There may be “unexplained and or controversial” elements in evolutionary theory. Scientists continue to look for explanations–& for better or different explanations. And they certainly argue about details–just not about the basic concepts of evolutionary theory. They don’t throw up their hands & say “It’s too hard to figure out! God did it!”
Relevance/irrelevance is a matter of points, from a college professor’s standpoint. I teach freshman/sophomore English, and we care very much about the relevance of information in a paper or on an exam. If a student answers an essay question with irrelevant information, he/she is distracting the reader from the narrowly focused intent of the question. If the professor had asked for an essay on viability of the theory of beneficial mutation, then the student’s inclusion of argumentation would have been justified and looked-for. But that’s not what the professor asked. The prof asked the student to prove that she understood a scientific theory. There is only one correct answer. Anything else, more or less, is a wrong --or at least partly wrong – answer.
Students don’t like to be told that there are wrong answers these days, but there is a growing movement among college and university faculty to raise the standards of scholarship. I’m afraid it’s going to prove difficult for religiously activist students.
This answer would be more like writing “space aliens killed Lincoln” on the test.
How many points got taken off? I’d be okay with deducting a point or two as punishment for writing incorrect information and general dickishness, but not a lot of points.
I would say that if it’s a upper-level class for majors, than marking off for this comment is acceptable because that would not be appropriate for professional scientific writing, the student should know this by now, and I assume work like this would reflect poorly on the department when the student graduates.
If it’s a 100 level class, then cut the kid some slack and mark it with no points off. A college student should know going forward that this isn’t appropriate in a science class, but nothing the student said was inaccurate, and it’s understandable that they’re still learning how to balance faith and professionalism. IME instructors in low-level science classes are very generous with writing style on timed exams, I highly doubt the professor was demanding high quality scientific writing from every other student on this test so I think it would be unfair to dock points in this case.
Oh, I don’t know about that. I think a fair humanities comparison would be like asking a question about Oswald killing Kennedy and getting an answer that, in the conclusion, says:
“Though it is the standard among historians, some believe that various issues of assassination remain unexplained and or controversial. For this reason, many people believe that the event was subject to various cover ups, from multiple shooters to the mafia.”