Summary
I'm very impartial when it comes to grades, on one hand grades are very useful for tracking your progress and knowledge in a subject. Grades are useful when you need a system to recognize your strengths and work your on your weakness's. I also think that striving for good grades may help you build skills you need in the future, attendance, discipline, perseverance are all general skill you apply can apply to a variety of real life scenarios. But on the other hand Many systems of grading can be counterintuitive to the goal of learning. There are classes and systems where you may be given a dozen assignments a week , and you may do all of them perfectly but learn nothing. Many students are pressured into quickly solving a problem or jotting down an essay Before a deadline, but that doesn't mean they were able to properly absorb the learning material. I Think for grades to be effective you may need a balance between a ridged structure that tracks your progress and understanding, while also being flexible enough to allow students to properly take in what they learn. This means less out of class homework/ assignments and more of a focus on in person discussions with peers and instructors. So to sum it up grading can be a advantageous tool when done properly, but a system with an excessive emphasis on grading can be a mental burden and unreasonable in the pursuit of learning.
Angela Dunne
Your thoughts here are very well put. As Alfie Kohn shares in the video, “Why Grades Shouldn’t Exist”, research on grades shows three things, 1. they make students less interested in what they are learning for a grade, 2. they make students less likely to challenge themselves if the goal is to get an A, or the best possible grade, and 3. they make students less likely to reflect on their learning in a deep sense beyond the attainment of a grade. These findings provide evidence for your idea that, “Many systems of grading can be counterintuitive to the goal of learning.” I am also interested in your statement, “striving for good grades may help you build skills you need in the future, attendance, discipline, perseverance” – it makes me wonder about what those particular skills are preparing you for? Being a good worker at a 9-5 job? If so, what is the purpose of education? Personal enrichment/discovery or becoming a good worker or something else?
What could a system of assessing learning look like beyond the system of grades that exists?