“Will this be on the test?”
I have heard teachers complain about students who are in class for a grade and will do nothing beyond what is required to get it. They complain about the students, but the problem is with an educational institution that trains both student and teacher to use grades to represent learning. The institution asserts that the goal is learning, while at the same time demonstrating that consequences come from grades. This mixed message is not lost on the student who both learns to play the grade-game and to mistrust the teacher, school, and process. Learning, the student discovers, is not the point.
Not all teachers give in to this system gracefully. Some resist.
On the first day of class, a calculus teacher of my acquaintance said: “exams are open-book, and I will tell you in advance what kinds of questions will be on the tests. If you pay even a little attention to what I say in class, you will get an ‘A’ without any problem.” After a period of adjustment, the class took on a very different quality. The students relaxed. The material became the focus.
A photography teacher I know gave his students a choice: “If you are here primarily for a grade, come back at midterm, and I’ll give you a handout with the final exam questions and answers, but for now, leave. If you really want to learn, with no guaranteed grade, stay. I’ll make you work, but you’ll learn.” I wasn’t surprised to hear that most students left. He told me that students who stayed made the class was one of the best he had ever had.
These teachers managed to put the issue of grades largely aside, so that students could explore the material without the distraction of the grade-game. But the costs to teachers who experiment with such resistance can be very high. The photography teacher was let go because one student missed the midterm handout, failed the final exam, and complained to the school. This is not surprising; whatever the grade-game is, students learn to play it. Change the system out from under them, and some become resentful.
So we have a dilemma: either we use grades and the game itself becomes the study, or we forgo grades and restructure based on student motivation and learning, facing not only student push-back, but assuming institutional motivation, which is not often evident.
For a teacher to go into a school where grades are used and try to circumvent the system is hard and dangerous work. More dangerous, though, is not seeing the tyranny at all; the teacher who uses grades and fails to see how grades typically end up replacing and undercutting learning is missing something critical to learning.
As teachers, when we can remove or at least devalue the effect of grades, we can open the door to the subject itself being more visible. It is risky, though. While some students will see through to the material, others will resent the sudden change. But it is certainly possible. Many students take classes out of choice, from yoga to literature to martial arts, with no grades at all, so clearly it is possible.
There are alternative institutional approaches. If you are not familiar with the philosophy and practice of Summerhill School, a 90 year old school that does not use grades at all but nonetheless produces quite capable students, I recommend you take a look. The school was founded by A.S.Neill, who wrote a book on the subject, a chapter of which you may read here if you wish.
My offered practice: if you teach with grades, consider how you might change the effect of grades on the student, even if only for a single day. If you teach without grades, consider what would happen if you introduced them.
The teaching “game” includes grades as the accepted form of assessment, so I don’t feel like you can wipe them away and still be in the “game.” I’ve tried to teach courses where I did not fine-tune my assessment, but the results were unfavorable (kids didn’t work). You’re right there should be a paradigm shift, but that is going to take some time, and a better alternative then a letter or numerical mark; and I don’t have a better plan to submit.
I hardly mean to suggest this is a simple challenge. After all, we have taught our students this paradigm. We have explained to them in no uncertain terms that their entire lives depend on playing this game well. More importantly, we have taught our teachers there is no other way. A teacher cannot resist a system without being able to first imagine a tenable alternative and second a plan to get there.
I’m not at all surprised at your experience. When we change the paradigm, even a little, we must take the students with us. We have to re-train them to think differently about learning and themselves. We have to address the fears of failure the grade system has instilled in them. This is neither simple nor easy.
But if the system is not working, and grades are part of why, should we just look away and hope the next generation will somehow see outside the paradigm where we did not?
You might want to take a look at the Summerhill resources I mentioned, and perhaps some of Alfie Kohn’s work, online and his book Punished by Rewards, which examines this subject and possible approaches to change, not only systemically, but at a personal level. I’d be especially interested to hear your reactions to those writings.
I got rid of grades altogether. Before, when the students made a low grade, they gave up. I decided that I would go to bat for them, and I argued with the school that grades had failed children. They relented. I do give assessments, but they are based on the students’ having felt that they have convinced themselves that they know the subject by my asking questions to supplement their own work. If they can show themselves that they have learned enough to demonstrate an understanding that meets their standards, then I let go. I teach standards of thought based on their own words; if they prove themselves to be hypocrites and yet remain intolerant of others, then they have not passed their own standards. This teaches goals, critical thinking, and values all at once. Students will call me years later to explain that they have gotten married, earned a degree or gotten they job they cared for. This proves to them that they have not been hypocritical. They don’t want my approval, merely to let me know that they have earned the right to say that they have learned what they set out to understand. runningturtle87
Chris, giving students the tools to evaluate and discuss their own learning and productivity to a supportive audience seems like an excellent approach. That you were able to convince your school to give up grades completely is impressive. I would like to hear more about your approach. Have you done any writing about this?
I am curious if encountered any students who did not do the work, or who treated lack of grades as permission to do less work.