Pros and Cons of Norming in the EFL Classroom

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While norming has been part of education in some parts of the world, such as the USA for a few decades, in others it's just starting to take place. It's the third part of team building: forming, storming, norming, preforming. While norming can be a good thing, care has to be taken to make sure it is done correctly.  Below you can find a few pros and cons to norming.

Pros

• Rubrics are the same: teachers ensure that students are graded based on the same standards.
• There are standards to learning: since the teachers know what will be on the rubric, this ensures that all students, even those taught by different teachers, will learn the same thing by the end of the semester.
• It's fairer: all students are held to the same standard.
• Teachers can easily find problem areas: and then fix them if most students due poorly in one area.

Cons

• No catering to students' needs: individuality is not acknowledge. Everyone is expect to reach the same level despite their different starting levels, abilities, or majors. 
• Lots of time is wasted: it's hard for teachers to agree on what to put in the rubrics and they rarely receive any training on how to make them.
• Teaching to the test: since teachers want their students to do well many just teach to the test. 
• Data isn't used: all this data is gathered, but teachers don't see how their students did compared to other teachers' students.

As you can see there are pros and cons and both need to be carefully considered before norming is used.

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