The marking process is finally over, but some matters for thought arose during discussions to agree marks.
The biggest issue is one that I have raised before, and which still bothers me, concerning students who answer questions that relate to one’s own particular field. This has been a tough issue on a second year course I teach in International History 1914-1945 (dealing with the foreign policy of Britain, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia/Soviet Union amongst others). Students are drawn frequently to questions on Germany and the Soviet Union, which is unsurprising given students general level of interest in twentieth century Russian and German history and not necessarily a problem. The issue arises when a student misses material that one feels might have been included, or when they argue, not always convincingly, a line that you don’t agree with. The problem then is trying to remain objective and assessing the student on the level of knowledge for an undergraduate, not necesarily holding them to the standard of ourselves.
Tricky. Although I do believe we are engaged as teachers of history in (re)producing historians, we do need to be sensitive to the fact that this is a road we have travelled (and contiue to travel), while the undergraduate has begun their journey, but later than us.
No comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link
http://www.aliwilliams.me.uk/blog/wp-trackback.php?p=200