At the start of a new semester, many students worry about their class difficulties and maintaining a good GPA. While grades may seem important to the academic model, Professor of Communication Zachary Walton is researching how grades can negatively affect the learning process.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and I had a number of experiences with students in which it was clear grading was getting in the way of learning,” said Walton. “When I would give a student a 98% on something and then there’s a tense discussion on ‘Where did I lose that 2%?”
A graded system may seem standard across all colleges, but some schools rely on student evaluations instead of assigning a letter grade. Walton said a presentation from a speaker from Evergreen College, a gradeless school, piqued his interest.
“If we’re asking the question ‘What will contribute to student learning?’, there is a lot of research and that research all points to that grading is the opposite of encouraging student learning,” said Walton.
Walton is implementing a pass or fail style of grading for one of his classes this semester. Instead of grades, students demonstrate learning by completing projects best suited to their individual needs.
“The goal is they [the students] demonstrate that they’ve learned in whichever form works best for them, and I can look at something and say, “Oh yeah, you did learn,’” said Walton. “Or I can say ‘You might want to take another run at it, here’s some feedback.’”
Walton also understands grades may motivate some students.
“There are also some students where the system has worked well for them and moving away from the system will be painful for them,” said Walton. “There has to be a lot of working with people who the system has worked quite well with and helping them to understand and put the focus back on learning.”
Sophomore history major, Anton Miller, studying in Marbeck.
Anton Miller, a sophomore history major with an AYA licensure, believes grades are too heavily pushed on students. Miller’s high school implemented a grading system where smaller assignments and larger assignments were not worth the same number of points, allowing students to focus on learning for tests instead of worrying about homework.
“I think grades are especially pushed really hard on kids when they are young,” said Miller. “By the time they get older, they’re so stressed out and burned out that they either give up or all they care about are grades, and they don’t care about what they are getting out of education.”
Miller finds it hard to focus on learning when grades are a student’s number one priority.
“My favorite part about school and what makes me enjoy school is when I am able to learn things and I’m able to share learning things with other people, like with my teachers and classmates,” said Miller. “It’s hard to enjoy school when you are stressed out about your grades. It’s hard to learn anything when all you are focused on is getting an A or passing the class in general.”
