Walter C. Okshevsky wrote:
WO: I can identify many of the effects of my teaching and conversations with students through the use of tests, assignments, mid-term papers, final exams and their choices as to activities after completion of the course(s). So I'm unclear as to why all this mystification of the enterprise of teaching philosophy.
Perhaps what's missing in the comment of mine is the distinction between what a teacher is able to "get out of" students and what the student "got out of" the course. Of course I can see how much work I get out of students and can measure their progress on my set of standards; grading seems a fair way to appraise students of how much (and of what quality) work I was able to get out of them. (That's why employers look for college graduates; the graduates have proven that they are able to work in a wide variety of areas for a wide variety of teachers and still succeed in producing quality work.)
When I was a college student, some classes that I got an "A" in according to this standard didn't really mean anything to me. I forgot the material fairly soon, and have only vague recollections of taking the class at all. The teacher may have been able to get considerable work out of me of acceptable quality, but I didn't really get anything out of the class.
What I am NOT able to see as a teacher is how much my class has had an effect on what the STUDENT got out of the course. (I've actually tried a few times, without success.) Whether the course has meant anything to the student does not show up in their essays, tests, etc. But this is, I think, the most important area where "feedback" from the student, as infrequent as it may be, energizes the teacher. It really matters to me that some students take away something from philosophy besides a good grade; I want them to continue to explore these kinds of ideas wherever they find them, and continue to appreciate how much they "got out of" my class. When they bump into me years later, I don't want them to say "I got an 'A' from you," I want them to say how much philosophy still means to them.