Watching Dan Pink speak about how he took French for many years and always got an A, but now knows no French, shows something is wrong with our educational system. Also, this is an issue I have had throughout a good amount of my classes; where I pretty much just did the work and passed, but felt like I didn't learn anything. The difficult question to answer is what would happen if we took grades out of the equation? I believe that if we did, it would have to be a process. There would have to be some way in order for us to see that the students were ready to participate in class and complete their work simply so that they learn and not for a grade. I think it is more important that we grade based on individual student growth, and we shouldn't compare students against one another. Also, the students should have the opportunity to assess themselves, reflect on how they grew, and identify what they learned. These kinds of higher level questions increase student's cognitive development. In addition, students would probably, more often than not, learn more if they didn't earn a grade because there would be no set standard and the students would probably grow above and beyond what they would have if they simply got an A.
I agree with you that removing grades would have to be a process and that students have to be ready for it.
ReplyDeleteI had the experience of attending a high school in which teachers were encouraged to eliminate grades. It did not go well. In those classes I, and most of my peers, did and learned nothing. After my second year there, the headmaster and most of the faculty were fired. On the other hand, in college I did a little experiment in which I spent one semester striving for a perfect grade report and the following semester striving for maximum learning. I got slightly worse grades the second semester, mostly because I generally followed my own interest over the syllabus. I believe the difference was maturity. In high school I was not prepared to learn without an external stimulus, but in college I was. I think that in our current system, so heavily dependent on testing, we actually undermine the kids' ability to take responsibility and do them a great disservice thereby, but if that particular status quo is to change it must be a slow change, or we risk sacrificing an entire generation.
Thanks for commenting Harry! Very interesting... sounds like maturity plays a huge part in the decision to eliminate grades, and we shouldn't be undermining students abilities to take responsibility and advantage of their learning.
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