Book Burning, Naturally Occurring Data, and the Stages of Pedagogic Grief

摘要

My sermon today begins with the following reading from Ashby(1984): For many years I taught in universities. ... I marked thousands of examination scripts without examining what the scripts could teach me about my capacity as teacher and examiner. At my home institution, for some months after the students complete their final exams, my colleagues and 1 are required to keep all the exam booklets in which the students wrote their answers, in case a student appeals their grade. The actual grading of the answers in those booklets had already driven us to despair {How could so many students misunderstand our lectures, which were the very model of clarity'?!) so we each push those booklets into the darkest corners of our office, and ignore them. Finally, the joyous day comes when an email arrives, announcing that we may now dispose of these booklets (Subject line: "Bring out your dead").