Whew! I just spent most of this week dealing with complaints over marking. Over a measly 2 – 4 % points. I didn’t really believe it at first, but my senior colleagues were right after all. It’s a little scary how focused some NUS students are on anything that may hint that they’re not doing as well as some of their other classmates. After listening some more to what the profs and more experienced Teaching Assistants said to me about why this behaviour occurs, I’ve come to realise that there are some downsides to a merit-based system of education. For one thing, it makes students really competitive and grade-focused. The entire system of Singapore is based upon meritocracy – the pay grades of your first job depend on the level of your degree (eg. Honours students get paid more than regular Bachelor Degree holders, who get paid more than Diploma holders, etc.). So the fight for a few percentage points that may mean the difference between A and A- is somewhat fierce.
And not just that. Students are also quite sensitive to implied criticism or failure. You need to compliment liberally, and critique indirectly. Maybe it’s part of Asian culture, that we must always save face for the other person. Even constructive criticism – which is what I’m definitely trying to provide for my students – must be worded carefully so as not to upset them. Well, to some extent this is helpful and true across the world – Dale Carnegie also mentions it in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People. Praise desirable behaviour rather than criticise undesirable behaviour. It’s something I’m still learning how to do, but I’m also wondering if continuing in this mentality is a good thing, as an educator.
The main issue I grapple with is how to adequately prepare my students for jobs as creative professionals in the “real world”, while encouraging a sense of enthusiasm and love for the subject I’m teaching. Too much criticism can kill someone’s passion, yes. But I cannot – and should not – also give them false expectations of success in the working world if it’s not justified. Or encourage laziness and mediocrity (the “just enough to scrape by” mentality) in developing creative products (in my case, games) when eventually it will be the public and market forces that will judge their work. How can I teach my students to face criticism and learn from it, strive to make the best product they can possibly make regardless of whether they will be graded for it or not, and maintain that edge of rebellion towards traditional norms and desire to break new boundaries that is so much a part of creative innovation yet have the skillset gained from traditional forms to execute it well?
Maybe it’s too much to ask for.
