Grades: Caging YOU in a Box

           

            Introduction

            The teaching-learning process involves a series of painstaking sacrifices and commitment both in the part of the teacher and of the student.

            But what is learning then?

            Learning is not spoon-feeding the information to the students; it’s about enabling them to take the spoon for themselves and to feed themselves. It’s not about being the only talking head in the four-corners of the classroom but it’s about empowering the other heads to speak for themselves as they express what is in their minds. In a nutshell, learning is not one-sided, but it’s a give and take process.

            But how can you emphasize the essence of “learning” if you devote yourself to the standardized basis of grades?

            How can you uplift the notion of “learning for the sake of learning” when you are encouraging your students to learn for the sake of good grades?

           

            Reality behind the Numbers

            According to Alfie Kohn in his essay entitled, “The Case against Grades”, there are three major reasons why grades play a hindrance towards the learner’s urge to learn:

            1. Grades tend to diminish students’ interest in whatever they’re learning. 

            - You want them to write an essay with your given topic and you have presented them the rubric as basis for the rating of their paper. You are very particular with the syntactical elements of the document and rated them accordingly. If you do this, chances are you will encourage the students to write about something YOU want and not about something THEY want to explore; They will give you an output that YOU have expected them to do and not what THEY want to do. It’s just blatantly saying, “You HAVE to do this or else you will FAIL”.

            2. Grades create a preference for the easiest possible task.

            - You let them write a home reading report and have presented the rubric in assessing their work; you have thus rated them according to the standardized basis. You emphasize the value of the format and spacing. You highlighted the importance of grammar and concept. If you do this, chances are you will coerce them to find an easier book to read in order for them to MINIMIZE the error that they may commit; You are enabling them to “play safe” instead of being adventurous and you are declining their divergent thinking as you strive to follow the standard you have drawn.

            3. Grades tend to reduce the quality of students’ thinking.

             - You set out the pointers for your long quiz. You gave them the information that they needed to know. If you keep on doing this without having the slightest inclination to ask them if they have further clarifications chances are, they will only succumb on the information that will be INCLUDED in the test rather than to further explore the information given. This will ultimately decline their learning retention as they are extrinsically motivated to learn. Sure they may scan the books, but ask them a week after you gave the quiz- they can’t even remember a thing.

            Conclusion

            The examples that I have presented may be mundane or even ordinary in your eyes, but the aftermath of these situations may cause a serious discouragement of the student to learn for his/her own benefit; And they will ultimately succumb in the encouragement of the numerical or letter equivalence of their performance.  An environment with intense adherence to strict implementation of grades may yield to a classroom full of cheaters and a teaching-learning environment where high-achieving students will have a tremendous fear of failure.

            At some point, the goal orientation of the student may play a vital role on his/her learning retention and that his/her perspective on education may rely on his/her point of view as dictated in the philosophy of subjectivity. However, despite the motivation of the learner we as teachers (or future teachers) should enable the students to think for his/her own self-improvement. Emphasize the fact that THE GRADE DOESN'T DEFINE YOUR BEING and ultimately highlight that A GOOD NUMERICAL EQUIVALENCE OF YOUR PERFORMANCE CAN’T MAKE YOU THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PERSON IN THE WORLD. It’s not about the grades, it’s about you and your intelligence. It’s not about the grades, it’s about you and your strengths as well as your points of improvement. Lastly, it’s not about the grades, it’s about you and your determination to learn fully for your development.

            Learning is not a box where the learners are caged rather it’s about eradicating the limitations to enable the learners to reach beyond the retrains and think with divergence. It’s about enabling the students to become who they aspired to be by teaching them how to think INDEPENDENTLY and DIFFERENTLY. It’s about giving them the opportunity to explore and be adventurous of what they can discover.