Studying in the US: High Marks Just for Trying?
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
This
week in our Foreign Student Series, we continue our discussion about grades.
Would you want a doctor who got high marks in medical
school just for trying really, really hard? Apparently many college students
would have no problem with that. They believe students are owed a good grade
simply because they put a lot of effort into a class. Or at least that is what they
told researchers last year at the University of California, Irvine.
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The
researchers asked more than eight hundred undergraduates if they agreed or
disagreed with some statements. For example: “If I have completed most of
the reading for a class, I deserve a B in that course.” And: “A
professor should not be annoyed with me if I receive an important call during
class.”
Just
sixteen percent thought it was OK to take that phone call. But sixty-six
percent agreed that a professor should consider effort and not just the quality
of a student’s work when deciding grades. And forty percent thought they should
get a B, the second highest mark, just because they did most of the reading for
class.
The
findings appeared in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. The students were
ages eighteen to twenty-five.
Some
experts are not surprised that students often see no difference between effort
and results. Social critics like to say that in children’s activities these
days, everyone gets an award just for trying, so no one will feel rejected. Or
so it may seem.
Yet
competition to get into the best colleges is fiercer than ever. Students may worry
that low grades will keep them out of graduate school or a good job.
And
there may be another explanation: pressure from parents to get a good return on
the family’s investment. These days, college can cost more than a house.
A former teaching assistant recently wrote to the New
York Times about his experience with grade expectations. He would try to
explain it this way when students asked for a top grade just for studying hard in
chemistry class:
What
if a baseball player came to spring training and worked harder than all the
others, but still could not play well. Would the team accept him anyway, just
because he tried so hard?
The students would say no. But most of them would still
ask for an A.
And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report,
written by Nancy Steinbach. Tell us what you think about grades, and read what
others have to say, at voaspecialenglish.com. Click on Foreign Student Series.
I’m Steve Ember.
Laying the Roots for Healthy Teeth in Young Children
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Bad
teeth can be painful — and worse. They can even be deadly. Infections of the
gums and teeth can release bacteria into the blood system. Those bacteria can
increase the chances of a heart attack or stroke and worsen the effects of
other diseases. And adults are not the only ones at risk.
For example, in two thousand seven, doctors in the
Washington area said a boy died when a tooth infection spread to his brain.
They said it might have been prevented had he received the dental care he
needed. He was twelve years old.
Experts at the National
Institutes of Health say good dental care starts at birth. Breast milk, they
say, is the best food for the healthy development of teeth. Breast milk can
help slow bacterial growth and acid production in the mouth.
But dentists say a baby’s gums and early
teeth should be cleaned after each feeding. Use a cloth with a little warm
water. Do the same if a baby is fed with a bottle. Experts say if you decide to
put your baby to sleep with a bottle, give only water.
When
baby teeth begin to appear, you can clean them with a wet toothbrush. Dentists
say it is important to find soft toothbrushes made especially for babies and to
use them very gently.
The
use of fluoride to protect teeth is common in many parts of the world. For
example, it is often added to drinking water supplies. The fluoride mixes with
enamel, the hard surface on teeth, to help prevent holes, or cavities, from forming.
But young children often swallow toothpaste when they
brush. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry notes that swallowing
fluoridated toothpaste can cause problems. So young children should be
carefully supervised when they brush their teeth. And only a small amount of
fluoridated toothpaste, the size of a green pea, should be used.
Parents often wonder what effect thumb
sucking or sucking on a pacifier might have on their baby’s teeth. Dental
experts generally agree that this is fine early in life.
The
American Academy of Family Physicians says most children stop sucking their
thumb by the age of four. If it continues, the group advises parents to talk to
their child’s dentist or doctor. It could interfere with the correct development
of permanent teeth.
Dentists say
children should have their first dental visit at least by the time they are one
year old. They say babies should be examined when their first teeth appear –
usually at around six months.
And
that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. I’m Steve Ember.
Studying in the US: Grading Grades
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
This
week in our Foreign Student Series the subject is grades.
Most American colleges and universities use
the grading system of A, B, C, D and F. An A is worth four points, a B three
points, a C two points and a D one point. Getting a grade like a B-plus or a
C-minus adds or subtracts a few tenths of a point. An F is a failing grade
worth zero toward a student’s grade point average.
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| Students at Evergreen State College in Washington state |
A small number of colleges — perhaps about
twenty nationally — reject the traditional grading system. The Evergreen State
College, for example, was established in nineteen sixty-seven and has never
used letter or number grades. Evergreen State
is a public four-year college in the northwestern city of Olympia,
Washington. It has more than four thousand students, including twenty-six
international students currently.
Evergreen State is organized into programs
taught by teams of professors. Each program brings together different subjects
and extends in length over two or three quarters. Students are required to do a
major research project at the end of each program.
The professors write detailed
evaluations of the students. These are combined with evaluations written by the
students themselves. Students also meet with their professors to discuss their
work.
The
director of admissions, Doug Scrima, says employers and graduate
schools like these evaluations, called narratives. He says they show more about
the quality of students’ work than traditional grades do.
Most
teachers would probably agree that traditional grades are sometimes unfair. But
professors at big schools say there is not enough time to write evaluations for
each student in large classes. Some classes have hundreds of students.
Alverno
College in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, is a small women’s school that does not use grades. Kathleen O’Brien
is the chief academic officer. She says letter grades do not effectively document
learning or provide good direction to students. She says even at big schools
there are classes small enough to give evaluations. But she says the American
university system is not organized to accept this kind of change.
We will talk more about
grades next week. But first, let us know how you feel about grades. You can
submit comments on this story and find earlier reports in our Foreign Student
Series at voaspecialenglish.com.
And
that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach.
I’m Steve Ember.
