FEATURE /
THE BELL-CURVE PHENOMENON ATHENA FOO |
21.10.2011
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Credit: The Kent Ridge Common
When Gwendoline Mah received her results two semesters ago, she was shocked to receive her first B-minus. What was more upsetting, however, was that the dreaded bell curve may have contributed to her grade.
“I just think it’s really unfair,” the final year student majoring in theatre studies at the National University of Singapore said. “The class size is too small.”
But what is the minimum number of students required to apply bell curve to a module? Is it compulsory to apply the bell curve when grading students? Why should one be graded relative to peers?
These are just some of the questions students have been asking since The Campus Observer, an NUS online newspaper, broke the story on the bell curve grading system as an assessment tool in March 2007. The university admitted to using the bell curve for grading purposes after the story was released.
The university clarified how one’s grade was determined. However, many students still feel that they have been disadvantaged by the bell curve.
Since then, the bell curve phenomenon has spawned off a few community groups tackling this issue. The Module Review website and Facebook group are two of such responses. Modules reviewed by students from different faculties are available online, and are usually based on how students from a particular faculty fare better in their own learning methods. These reviews are designed to help students decide whether they will do well for a module and if they should take the module.
In an interview with 40 students on how the bell curve grading system has affected them and their opinions on the system, 22 students indicated that they felt they have been at the bottom end of the curve. Twelve students were either neutral or unsure of how much they have been affected by the system. In both instances, students were also unable to describe how the system works exactly, and were not sure of how they fared against their peers.
Only four students indicated that they have been benefitting from the system. The remaining two students are freshmen and have not taken any NUS exams yet. Students from all faculties, with the exception of Medicine and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, were represented in the interviews conducted.
“Claims of unfairness” were not uncommon to Provost and Academic Deputy President Tan Eng Chye, who has received the occasional feedback from students concerning the bell curve.
Tan said on Wednesday that no matter how much the university has tried to be transparent about this issue, people are bound to feel that more could be disclosed.
“Well, to put it this way, it’s one of the mechanisms we use for our assessments,” he said. “We don’t rely on that totally. No system is foolproof, and we use it with best intentions. So there could be instances that people feel it’s not fair, it’s bias.”
“Many universities use this system, not just universities in fact, a lot of assessment systems use something similar to this,” he reasoned further. “If you don’t use this [system], there will be great inflation or the other way, where everyone don’t do well.”
What about the number of students required in a module for the bell curve to be applied?
“It doesn’t make sense for the bell curve to be applied on small groups of students,” he said. “If your class size is not more than 40 or 50, we don’t even use the bell curve.”
“Even for smaller groups of students, 50 to 70, there [are] certain constrains with using that bell curve, and it may happen that you are looking at a very good… a group of students who are very strong, that one we will actually do make provisions for that,” he added.
The president of the NUS Student Union, Ang Yu Qian, also echoed his words.
“There is no hard and fast rule as to whether the bell curve has to be applied in the grading procedure,” Ang said. He has spoken about this issue among other academic matters with the Provost before.
Still, even as these issues remain debatable, the idea of relative assessment, which is the main contention of the bell curve grading, continues to unsettle students.
Among the 40 students interviewed, views were divided as to whether the relative assessment was a good way of grading. At least 11 students felt that the bell curve is not truly reflective of how well one has learned the content taught, and at least one student remarked that the bell curve made students overly competitive.
“It is not truly reflective of each student’s ability – someone has to get a bad grade even if everyone in the class is contributing productively and learning,” Sharon Chen, a fourth-year double major in English literature and political science said.
Some students have also suggested that absolute assessment be used over relative assessment, as well as for the bell curve not to be “too skewed”.
One of the students interviewed suggested a compromise.
“I think it depends on the nature of the modules,” Law Chan How, a fourth-year major in applied mathematics said.
“Perhaps the bell curve should be applied only on exposure modules where the cohort is greater and there is a need to differentiate students,” he said. “Otherwise I don’t think it is a good idea for the bell curve to be applied for core modules.”
Nonetheless, there are people who accept the merits of, or are at least sympathetic towards the bell curve, and see its advantages too.
“In a way the bell curve feels like a safety net because we get the feeling that there are always people performing worse than ourselves, although this is definitely not the right way to assure ourselves,” Kitty Khoo, a third-year double major in economics and business administration said.
Evening out of grades aside, “it’s good [cause] in the working world we’ll always be compared against others anyway,” Anastasya Masayu Selo, a fourth-year chemical engineering student said. “But I still feel that this grading system is a little unfair.”
“I just think it’s really unfair,” the final year student majoring in theatre studies at the National University of Singapore said. “The class size is too small.”
But what is the minimum number of students required to apply bell curve to a module? Is it compulsory to apply the bell curve when grading students? Why should one be graded relative to peers?
These are just some of the questions students have been asking since The Campus Observer, an NUS online newspaper, broke the story on the bell curve grading system as an assessment tool in March 2007. The university admitted to using the bell curve for grading purposes after the story was released.
The university clarified how one’s grade was determined. However, many students still feel that they have been disadvantaged by the bell curve.
Since then, the bell curve phenomenon has spawned off a few community groups tackling this issue. The Module Review website and Facebook group are two of such responses. Modules reviewed by students from different faculties are available online, and are usually based on how students from a particular faculty fare better in their own learning methods. These reviews are designed to help students decide whether they will do well for a module and if they should take the module.
In an interview with 40 students on how the bell curve grading system has affected them and their opinions on the system, 22 students indicated that they felt they have been at the bottom end of the curve. Twelve students were either neutral or unsure of how much they have been affected by the system. In both instances, students were also unable to describe how the system works exactly, and were not sure of how they fared against their peers.
Only four students indicated that they have been benefitting from the system. The remaining two students are freshmen and have not taken any NUS exams yet. Students from all faculties, with the exception of Medicine and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, were represented in the interviews conducted.
“Claims of unfairness” were not uncommon to Provost and Academic Deputy President Tan Eng Chye, who has received the occasional feedback from students concerning the bell curve.
Tan said on Wednesday that no matter how much the university has tried to be transparent about this issue, people are bound to feel that more could be disclosed.
“Well, to put it this way, it’s one of the mechanisms we use for our assessments,” he said. “We don’t rely on that totally. No system is foolproof, and we use it with best intentions. So there could be instances that people feel it’s not fair, it’s bias.”
“Many universities use this system, not just universities in fact, a lot of assessment systems use something similar to this,” he reasoned further. “If you don’t use this [system], there will be great inflation or the other way, where everyone don’t do well.”
What about the number of students required in a module for the bell curve to be applied?
“It doesn’t make sense for the bell curve to be applied on small groups of students,” he said. “If your class size is not more than 40 or 50, we don’t even use the bell curve.”
“Even for smaller groups of students, 50 to 70, there [are] certain constrains with using that bell curve, and it may happen that you are looking at a very good… a group of students who are very strong, that one we will actually do make provisions for that,” he added.
The president of the NUS Student Union, Ang Yu Qian, also echoed his words.
“There is no hard and fast rule as to whether the bell curve has to be applied in the grading procedure,” Ang said. He has spoken about this issue among other academic matters with the Provost before.
Still, even as these issues remain debatable, the idea of relative assessment, which is the main contention of the bell curve grading, continues to unsettle students.
Among the 40 students interviewed, views were divided as to whether the relative assessment was a good way of grading. At least 11 students felt that the bell curve is not truly reflective of how well one has learned the content taught, and at least one student remarked that the bell curve made students overly competitive.
“It is not truly reflective of each student’s ability – someone has to get a bad grade even if everyone in the class is contributing productively and learning,” Sharon Chen, a fourth-year double major in English literature and political science said.
Some students have also suggested that absolute assessment be used over relative assessment, as well as for the bell curve not to be “too skewed”.
One of the students interviewed suggested a compromise.
“I think it depends on the nature of the modules,” Law Chan How, a fourth-year major in applied mathematics said.
“Perhaps the bell curve should be applied only on exposure modules where the cohort is greater and there is a need to differentiate students,” he said. “Otherwise I don’t think it is a good idea for the bell curve to be applied for core modules.”
Nonetheless, there are people who accept the merits of, or are at least sympathetic towards the bell curve, and see its advantages too.
“In a way the bell curve feels like a safety net because we get the feeling that there are always people performing worse than ourselves, although this is definitely not the right way to assure ourselves,” Kitty Khoo, a third-year double major in economics and business administration said.
Evening out of grades aside, “it’s good [cause] in the working world we’ll always be compared against others anyway,” Anastasya Masayu Selo, a fourth-year chemical engineering student said. “But I still feel that this grading system is a little unfair.”