(ok, I wrote one post about Mozilla, so now I should get one post on something else, right?)
Alfie Kohn has written extensively about how grades serve to reduce and eliminate internal self-motivation in students. One element of this that has not really been mentioned, however, is how grades serve to discourage students from pursuing challenging ideas and assignments.
For instance, I am currently working on a research paper project. For this paper, I have a wide choice of topics. Potential topics range from an overview of the birth of social security and the debate surrounding the system to a look at the industrialization of education, examining Carnegie, Rockefeller, and friends’ roles in the development of the modern school system. Both of these are valid topics and with not very much work, I could write an A paper on social security that, while it would probably be pretty good, I would end up learning practically nothing from the experience; it would do nothing to advance my skills at writing or researching.
If, instead, I choose a more difficult topic, I would learn a great deal more, both about the topic and about the process of writing and researching. Naturally, any self-motivated student who is interested in continuing his or her learning would choose the more difficult topic. So what’s holding me back?
The answer, naturally, is grades. There are basically two options: choose an easy topic and take the easy A, screw the learning; or take on the much more difficult topic where the possibility of success is much less clear and risk a lower grade. Taking risks is an intrinsic part of learning. Schools exist to give students a safe place to take risks and grow from their experiences. Of all the positions to put students in, anything that discourages students from taking risks and furthering their learning is a bad thing to do. Grades discourage students from pursuing challenging work and from learning.
I don't think grades themselves are the problem here. It's that you've learned that whoever assesses the work doesn't take the difficulty of the topic into account. Quite common in an overworked, under skilled, school.
A good teacher would give an A for a very difficult topic done moderately well, whereas an easy topic would have to be perfect to get an A.
- Colin
Posted by: Colin Coghill on February 7, 2005 3:03 PMIn my experience, teachers tend to reward risk; fairness is not an issue, here, at least not more than it usually is, ì because evaluating the difficulty of a subject is at the teacher's discretion exactly as the quality of the assignment is.
Posted by: _dave_ on February 8, 2005 2:33 AMAnother research paper from Jesse, eh?
Well, here are some middle-road alternatives:
Compare/contrast. 'nuff said.
Take some old abstract concepts from something you know and apply them to something you don't know. (e.g. Writing your research paper about industrialization in the form of a Bugzilla report =P)
Take two interdisciplinary ideas, one that you formed randomly while doing recycling, one that you have some clue about, and randomly combine in such a way that the former far outweighs the latter but provides a good segway/connection. (i.e. my essay on my blog)
Posted by: James on February 8, 2005 9:08 PMWell, there certainly is a good deal of cynicism out there. But right now, I am stuck with the concept of grades and the necessity of assigning them. Ideally, sure, everyone would get infinite time and could turn out as many drafts as necessary to produce a finished, compelling, and completed piece of work. (Assuming that they wanted to, which is another purpose that grades serve, since they mark an arbitrary but real endpoint of the whole process that may be good for those without the ambition of producing the best work possible.) But that's not the world we live in. So I do what I can.
In fact, when I grade a paper, I consider the student doing it, the interest and difficulty of the topic, the execution...but I also have to be fair and use roughly similar standards of evaluation among students, in that it's not equitable to have completely different means of measurement applied to two papers from the same class--much as there's no affirmative action for kids who are bad at multiple choice. So I certainly would be a little disappointed to see someone doing something less than he/she could (in my outside but not uninformed opinion) do, but I also tend to think that there is a moral level on which that sort of easy way out is its own punishment.
Posted by: Jesse on February 14, 2005 12:45 PMI've been in this situation before. But with my style of learning, I am pretty much obligated to take the challenge, because if the project is too easy (like my History I research paper was), it will make me bored and I will underachieve. Funny how that works--there's really no way out. Good luck. :)
Posted by: Elena Butler on February 23, 2005 7:39 PM