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Paper - 3 C.

'To: Senate

From: Secretary

Subject: Comment on Summer Semester Grades

Date: Oct. 20, 1966

by Heads of Departments

A questionnaire was circulated to all Heads to elicit comments on the summer

semester grades.

One problem we tried to approach was the effect class size has on grades.

Number of Students

Percentage of F's

0-25

26-50

51-75

76 -100

100+

The majority of Heads felt the classes in the summer semester were too small

and unrepresentative from which to draw any

conclusions.

There was some suggestion

that the percentage of F's is expected to increase as the class size grows, but the

tutorial system offsets this expected increase.

We noted that the failure rate in introductory courses varied considerably

(3% in English 101 and 30% in Physics 101). Three possibilities were advanced to

•

explain this variation: the difference in analytic content, the difference in phil-

osophy - the encouragement of many versus the selection of the few, the difference

in external or self selection of the students enrolled in the courses. This quest-

ion obviously requires much more study.

We also asked why the results vary with apparent homogeneous student groups -

e.g. Languages and Linguistics, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. The comments

stressed differences in course content and attitude of the teachers. There was

general agreement that some means of encouraging faculty discussion of the individual

interpretation of the various grades should be found.

There were numerous comments on the impossibility of defining a "correct" dis-

tribution of grades. One comment in particular could be quoted:

"Thetwo prevailing assumptions - a) that there is a unitary factor of intelligence

in all people, and - b) that this function is distributed randomly amongst the pop-

ulation; are being largely abandoned by present-day psychologists. All the evidence

suggests that there are many 'intelligences", that these are not randomly distribut-

ed, and that they mature at different times in different individuals.

The implications of this mean that we cannot accept the concept of a normal dis-

tribution of "productivity" even within one area, let alone across different areas

(and even such comparisons rest on another dubious assumption, namely that examin-

ations are a valid measure of these intelligences)."

It is realized that this commentary has not provided any concrete evidence that we

have a useful or fair grading system, or that we can assure ourselves that it is being

used properly, but we have shed light on some of the questions we should be asking our-

selves. The study of grading and academic standings will carry on arid when important

results are found, these will be communicated to Senate.

D. P. Robertson, Registrar

and Secretary of Senate

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