Grading Alternatives

[Rip Stauffer <rstauffer@nhbpr.com>]

John Purchase wrote: "Frank's 'Their A to lose' is a pass/fail scenario.
The 'A' is a gold star
 for all who do not fail. What a great piece of psychology via external
motivation."

I suppose you could look at it that way. I would be disappointed to learn
that Frank does. Maybe it's just me, but I think there is a subtle
difference here. I don't think Frank's method as much motivates
extrinsically as it acts to preserve intrinsic motivation. 

In one passage from "Zen," Pirsig stopped giving out grades in his class
until the end of the semester. He found that the only people who cared about
their grades were those who were on the D/F cusp. They were using the grades
to track which side of the line they were on, so they could continue to do
the minimum and pass. To those motivated by the material and by the learning
experience, the grades were irrelevant.

I guess John Purchase has seen grading systems that can work. Most that I've
seen were of the destructive type that Deming was so adamantly against, and
did nothing but provide "objective" data for admissions deans, etc.

Rip Stauffer, Senior Consultant              Process Management
International
rstauffer@nhbpr.com		1300 Fifth Street Towers
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