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[–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Partial credit on a math problem is petty? I don’t think so. Even if you got the answer wrong, maybe you set it up correctly, then just missed a step somewhere or flipped a sign, or whatever. That seems perfectly reasonable to me.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    No, I agree partial credit can be useful in many cases.

    Here is why I think it is petty in this case:

    • assume grading is a tool to communicate degree of mastery of some concepts that are tested
    • assume it is better to test concepts frequently, provide feedback early, and move forward based on those results -- then there shouldn't be a scenario where there are TONS of concepts being tested (or at least not for a quiz)
    • if there are only a few concepts being tested, then does 2% really indicate any meaningful distinction of knowledge attained? Or is it as good as 0%? (I suppose the latter)
    • grading takes work. This teacher had to look hard to find something that they felt indicated a few points, but that effort has little benefit to the student -- who would likely benefit more from some remediation efforts than the teacher going through a quiz with a fine tooth comb.
    • the teacher using this quiz to form their next lesson understood the kid needed remediation well before finding +2% partial credit, the kid's grade is effectively the same as 0% and has no return on the teachers time investment to find this +2%, the kids morale is effectively the same as 0%, except worse now because there is an ongoing joke among their peers about the quiz. So all of the time the teacher spent grading this quiz has resulted in a worse outcome than if they just said, "wow this is bad, 0%, let's do tutoring" and moved on.
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