Early in the semester, I give assignments that allow students to learn basic research methodology and other skills they need for success.  As I explain to my students, these assignments allow us to identify any problems they might have when the stakes are low so that they do not have problems when working on major assignments.

Generally, students receive 100% for completing these assignments even if they do them incorrectly.  Those who attempt and “fail” do not really fail because we are able to work together to fix the errors before students begin the major course projects.  Students are given the points because of their good faith efforts and are then taught how to do the skill correctly.

Unfortunately, many students have begun to calculate the cost-benefit ratio for doing homework based on the number of points they will earn and not on the type of knowledge they will learn.  For them, earning 10 points is not worth the effort of locating a journal article in the library databases.  On one level, these students are correct.  In a course that will have 800-1,000 participation points before the end of the semester, any 10 point assignment is not particularly relevant toward their final grade.  However, there are two major problems with their calculations.

Too often, such students are not conscious of the cumulative effect of these 10 point assignments.  They don’t understand that only losing 10 points for not locating a journal article and only losing 10 points for not finding a Google book and only losing 10 points for each of the other three parts of the basic research skills assignment add up to 50 lost points.  And when you add these lost points to to other assignments not completed because they are only 10 points each, the results can quickly become significant.

A more serious miscalculation comes because the final grade is not really about the math.  It’s about the knowledge.  The students who lost 10 points for not attempting to find a journal article will not see a lower course grade because they did not complete this one assignment.  However, students who cannot locate journal articles will fail ever major assignment in the course; all of which require a working knowledge of the Schoolcraft College library databases.

Earlier today, I finished grading short essays in one of my classes; an assignment that only 64.6% of the students completed.

Each of the 64.6% of the students who submitted the assignment will earn their 30 points even though each one the 64.6% made errors on the assignment.  Some of the errors were minor, but some were very serious.  But it is not the errors that are important.  What is important is that the 64.6% will likely do well on the next major assignment because they took the opportunity to practice, made their mistakes on a low stakes assignment, and learned the skills for success.

But what about the other 35.4% of students?  Most, if not all, will likely fail the next major assignment.  Mathematically, the 35.4% only lost 30 points.  But the cost to them will be much higher.  Instead of learning from their mistakes on a low stakes assignment, they will need to fail the major assignment before learning from their mistakes.

In some of my classes last week, I cited the forward to ee cummings’ book is 5 where he argues

Ineluctable preoccupation with The Verb gives a poet one priceless advantage: whereas nonmakers  must content themselves with the merely undeniable fact that two times two is four, he rejoices in a purely irresistible truth (to be found, in abbreviated costume, upon the title page of the present volume).

As knowledge accumulates, education becomes more than the sum of its parts.  Students who calculate a cost-benefit analysis in determining whether or not to complete an assignment can never obtain irresistible truth.  Nor can they take comfort in the fact that 2 x 2 = 4 because, due to their miscalculations, the math ultimately works against them.

–Steven L. Berg, PhD

Photo Caption: “Ten Points When Lit” by David Gallagher.

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