The problem with the collective punishment approach is that, by his own admission, his action affected the innocent as well as the guilty (he offered to continue teaching the non behaviorally challenged, but was not permitted to do so).
A more effective approach might have been to enter the final grades for the guilty, then announce at the start of class that he had done so for some, but not students.
Matching the spread of reactions to those predicted by epidemiological models would be most interesting, as would be the response of anyone challenging their grade during the class to the question "What grounds do you have for believing that you received that grade?".
It seems there are three categories of reasons why he failed the entire class, and these should be considered separately. 1) The students did not study hard. Well, that's simple enough to measure and grade. Nothing new here. 2) The students cheated. Here, it sounds as though either the professor overreacted (signing in for another student is pretty mild stuff), or the administration turned a blind eye to cheating, in which case we have an institutional failure to address cheating. 3) Most importantly, claims of threats against the professor and rumor-mongering about him and his wife (!?!). Again, either the professor is blowing this out of proportion, or the administration is failing in its duty to handle borderline-criminal behavior by some students.
2 comments:
The problem with the collective punishment approach is that, by his own admission, his action affected the innocent as well as the guilty (he offered to continue teaching the non behaviorally challenged, but was not permitted to do so).
A more effective approach might have been to enter the final grades for the guilty, then announce at the start of class that he had done so for some, but not students.
Matching the spread of reactions to those predicted by epidemiological models would be most interesting, as would be the response of anyone challenging their grade during the class to the question "What grounds do you have for believing that you received that grade?".
It seems there are three categories of reasons why he failed the entire class, and these should be considered separately.
1) The students did not study hard. Well, that's simple enough to measure and grade. Nothing new here.
2) The students cheated. Here, it sounds as though either the professor overreacted (signing in for another student is pretty mild stuff), or the administration turned a blind eye to cheating, in which case we have an institutional failure to address cheating.
3) Most importantly, claims of threats against the professor and rumor-mongering about him and his wife (!?!). Again, either the professor is blowing this out of proportion, or the administration is failing in its duty to handle borderline-criminal behavior by some students.
I am most worried by (3), if true.
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