I originally posted this on a Ning site that we use for classroom discussions in my Educational Psych class.
Today there was an interesting discussion in the English/social studies prep room at ****. Someone brought up how grades were posted, and that most teachers posted them by student number (essentially alphabetically). One teacher though posted them that way and then highlighted in one colour those getting As, and in another colour those failing. A second teacher posts his grades sorted by grade. This lead to a discussion of the purpose of grades. Grades seem to be a motivation for students. But what we decided on was that it wasn’t just the grade, it was the competition for the grade. Competition was the motivator, not grades. I brought up that I felt it was doing a disservice to the students to assume that they can’t be intrinsically motivated. I said that in a Pass/Fail system students may start to loose their grade focus, and instead compete for doing individual assignments better than others, giving students for whom competition is the motivator more frequent chances for reward from their competition, rather than competing solely for the final grade.
It’s an interesting thought about what motivates our students to do well. I think that if grades are the main motivator, then we as members of the education system have failed them.
But really, think about it. What is the purpose of a grade?
Why do we give students grades?
Wait, no, that’s not it. I understand why we give students grades, what I don’t understand is why we use the traditional A through F system.
It seems to discourage cooperation, and provide yet another thing for students to make fun of each other over.
I believe that we should go to a Pass Fail system, with a few alterations. I don’t mean that we should get rid of numerical marking. I think that many people use this correctly. Numerical marking allows students to see where they are in comparison to the standard. What I do not agree with is when it is used to see where students are in comparison to others. A pass, then, should be 60% and higher (perhaps even 70%?). This way in order to pass you must actually have achieved a level of ability that will allow the students to move to the next level of classes.
Grades should be used to help students, not to label them.
Provincial exam marks have taken the place of actual GPA in deciding if someone can attend a particular university, so why bother with them?
Perhaps it is in fact to encourage competition. Maybe people believe that students wont work hard unless there is a grade attached? I believe that students will always find a way to compete, and that our focus on grades has simply made that the reason for competition.
But in reality we’ll see how my opinion changes as I work in the schools. Maybe I’ll find the reason for grades.
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In regards to my previous post. I am so frustrated I just sent an e-mail to my MP Nina Grewal. You can read the text below.
Greetings;
My name is Noah Arney. I love this country. I am proud to have become a Canadian. I am proud to live in this great land. I am proud that our country is free. That we are not persecuted for our expressions of personal beliefs. I am proud that newspapers are allowed to publish the truth and fact without fear of reprisal. I am proud that if there is a news story, our news media have the right to tell us about it, to give us the facts, and to let us decide what we believe.And then I found out about the case of Ezra Levant. And I felt shame for being in a country that is trying to take away someone’s right to publish the news.
Ezra Levant is currently before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for publishing a set of cartoons in his newspaper, a set of cartoons which made headlines around the world. And he was publishing them so that people could see what the news was about. They were published to illustrate an article that was about the impact of those same cartoons. Why, in our free country, is a man being persecuted for publishing the news?I do not agree with everything Mr. Levant says, or even most of what he says, but this is a free country, and he has a right to say it.
Please look into this. Please bring this up in parliament. Please stop our system from being corrupted. And please give our country its honor back.
Noah D. Arney
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The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section 2(b) ”Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: … freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.”
I love this country. Here we have the Charter which says that this is a free country, and we have places like the Human Rights Commission to make sure that no one’s rights or freedoms are violated.
And then I read something like this. Ezra Levant is being taken before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for publishing the Danish cartoons that caused so much hubbub for their portrayal of Mohamed. So apparently someone felt offended that someone would publish a news item in a news paper…. Ya know, I saw the cartoons in my university paper and they weren’t offensive at all. Nor were they inciting hatred or anything similar. They were just political cartoons, rather tame ones even.
So this is actually being heard by the Alberta Human Rights Commission, even though they are essentially saying that the “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication” only exist if you’re not offending someone.
So this suit has gone forward, one which would have been dismissed by any actual judge in a split second, and Mr. Levant has had his first day before the Commission, which was taped and is available on his blog. If you don’t have much time, at least read his opening statements here.
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