Universal Truth in Teaching

I am now sitting in my office grading an extra credit assignment I have in my HR class, which was a structured critique of Chef Ramsay’s good and bad behavior on Hell’s Kitchen and what should be done to manage someone like that if his/her manager by applying some of what was learned in the course. True to form, those that need the points the least are getting the max points on the assignment and those who really need the maximum points are not doing so well on the assignment (which was the case on all the assignments required in the course).

I am sharing this as a reflection on the assessment versus evaluation thread. I have now taught about 20 years and I have come to realize that there is one universal truth in teaching. The universal truth is that it does not matter the teaching method I have used (and I have used them all) or the way in which I come to know if students grasped the course materials (evaluate, assess, whatever); those who have an academic aptitude will achieve an A no matter the challenge and those who don’t will fall short no matter how hard they try. So the debates we sometimes have about the best way to enhance the quality of our teaching and student learning are – to me – often times pointless when I boil it down to the universal truth I have found to be true in all my years of teaching.

Mick