participation grade in college??

applicannot
Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:24:09 +0000

I am clearly the dissenter here. I don’t mind participation grades; in fact, I kind of like them. First of all, they are extremely easy parts of the grade to ace, but I’m an active student anyways. Secondly, personally, I’ve only found participation grades present in seminars, language classes (where I would consider a participation a mandatory part of the experience, so why not grade it), and huge lectures with required discussion sessions. In seminars and language classes, discussion is not only a part of the class, it’s a part of the learning experience. You can’t learn to speak Arabic from a book, and there’s hardly any point in taking a, say, social issues course if there’s no discussion. YOU might learn from not speaking, but by not participating you’re robbing others. As for lectures, well, I avoid them, so I can see where the agitation is there.

I always use the rational… if you’re PAYING for it, ATTEND it!