We Should Recognize Learning as well as Mastery
Roan Kang
Issue date: 10/15/01 Section: Opinions
- Page 1 of 2 next >
Our current grading system, which is based on a forced curve, rewards students who have demonstrated a high level of mastery in a particular academic subject. While there are always subjective factors in any performance measurement, it seems safe to say that a student who receives an “H” in finance is probably pretty sharp when it comes to determining the option value of a convertible bond.
Much as we honor our classmates who excel at sports or the arts, I believe that we should be proud of our friends who have achieved a high level of excellence in their academic studies. As long as we all stand by our class norm of not disclosing grades or rank to recruiters, there should be no reason that an individual student’s desire to excel academically should feel threatening to his or her classmates.
(As a side note, the students at HBS have for many years abided by a school-wide norm of grade non-disclosure. It works--I have many friends at HBS who will testify to this fact. Recruiters at HBS do not ask about grades, because they know that no student at HBS will reveal them. We, too, can stand firm on this class norm of non-disclosure and protect our cooperative culture.)
However, while our grading system does an adequate job of recognizing students who show mastery of a topic, it often does not fairly reflect the amount of true learning or effort on the part of students who come to a subject with little or no prior experience. While one academic purpose of the GSB is to increase our mastery of topics in which we already have expertise, another equally important goal is to strengthen those areas in which we lack experience.
Surely we admire the “poet” who spends many additional hours learning calculus to understand microeconomic theory as much as a classmate who arrived at school with great expertise in operations or marketing. I am constantly amazed by the efforts of many of our international classmates, for whom English is often a second or even third language. If I had to attend classes, prepare homework, and take exams in French or Arabic, I would have been politely asked to leave the school a long time ago!
Much as we honor our classmates who excel at sports or the arts, I believe that we should be proud of our friends who have achieved a high level of excellence in their academic studies. As long as we all stand by our class norm of not disclosing grades or rank to recruiters, there should be no reason that an individual student’s desire to excel academically should feel threatening to his or her classmates.
(As a side note, the students at HBS have for many years abided by a school-wide norm of grade non-disclosure. It works--I have many friends at HBS who will testify to this fact. Recruiters at HBS do not ask about grades, because they know that no student at HBS will reveal them. We, too, can stand firm on this class norm of non-disclosure and protect our cooperative culture.)
However, while our grading system does an adequate job of recognizing students who show mastery of a topic, it often does not fairly reflect the amount of true learning or effort on the part of students who come to a subject with little or no prior experience. While one academic purpose of the GSB is to increase our mastery of topics in which we already have expertise, another equally important goal is to strengthen those areas in which we lack experience.
Surely we admire the “poet” who spends many additional hours learning calculus to understand microeconomic theory as much as a classmate who arrived at school with great expertise in operations or marketing. I am constantly amazed by the efforts of many of our international classmates, for whom English is often a second or even third language. If I had to attend classes, prepare homework, and take exams in French or Arabic, I would have been politely asked to leave the school a long time ago!