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Effects of pressure on students to get good grades
Effect of peer pressure on study habits
The effects of school pressure on students
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We have trained many of our most successful students to work only for the grade. The grade being high, of course, but the amount of information we retain very low. When the grades our taken away, so is the validation of the good student. Most students are high GPA achieving students, not because they are smart, but because they know how to play the game of school. When it comes down to it, we work to score the highest grade we can, not learn. Short everyday grades do not help us to retain and keep the information we “learn”. Not only are we having to work for just the grade, short term grades, make students more focused on their GPA rather than getting the full extent of learning they can. Once the test is over, all the material we memorized …show more content…
Average grading diminishes a student’s interest in what they are learning and promotes fear of failure. The promoted fear of failure is the disadvantage of not having long term assignments. A student who has excellent thinking, but does not have the knowledge (for whatever reason) will get worse grades than one who just memorizes textbooks without actually understanding the essence of what they're learning. If we take away the fear of failure, we allow students to develop, flourish and become more competent. With students becoming more confident about their education, they begin to enjoy it more and set higher and higher goals for themselves to …show more content…
Student’s in this day and time are always asking the one cringe worthy question all teachers and professors hate after handing papers back, “Do we have to keep this?” As soon as students get their papers back, the first thing they immediately look at is their score. The second thing someone looks at is someone else’s score, making it seem as if their score determines how smart they are and if they are better than one another. Grades are a blight on education. Having long term assignments would greatly improve the ability of students and strengthen them in subjects more efficiently than the average grading system. In the society we live in today, people see grade point averages more important than the ability to talk in front of a classroom audience and the ability to write a five-page essay. Students do not withhold much information after being tested; quickly after the test, it vanishes from their minds. Grades are more of an ego booster rather than how much you know or understand the subject. We seem to not notice all the negative effects of grading until we put it in perspective or get rid of
In her article, “The Case Against GRADES”, Alfie Kohn discusses the grading system and its faults. She opens her argument with information from an older psychological study that proves the negative impact of the current grading system, and she reinforces this with the proof that “no” research has contradicted this statement. Also, she gives many key reasons including: “Motivation”, “Achievement”, “Quantification”, and “Curriculum”. Kohn supports these topics with other reasearch for why the system is failing the students. She asserts that, “… the absence of grading is a necessary condition for promoting deep thinking and a desire to engage in it.” As support, she offers other solutions and then debunks them by proving that they would not solve
“Making the Grade” by Kurt Wiesenfeld Newsweek magazine, June 27 1996 brings to light an issue that has been glazed over by society for some time, grade inflation. It’s highly disturbing that “we lament that schoolchildren get “kicked upstairs” until they graduate from high school despite being illiterate and mathematically inept, but we seem unconcerned with college graduates whose less blatant deficiencies are far more harmful, if their accreditation exceeds their qualifications”. The issue of grade inflation is not simply an issue of students feeling entitled to higher grades than they have earned, it is a problem that directly impacts our society in a multitude of negative ways. Perhaps the “gold star” mentality started out with the good intentions of creating children with positive self-esteem, however, a direct result is lazy adults with a sense of entitlement for no reason, who lack qualifications to adequately and safely perform their jobs.
According the three leading effects of grading outlined in Kohn’s paper, the number one effect of grading is “grades tend to reduce students' interest in being taught.” I would agree with his argument grading and testing puts pressure on getting excellent grades and takes the focus off understanding and on “performing” acceptably. When I was younger, I was ferocious reading lately the only reading I accomplish is required for a class or studying a textbook. It was enjoyable since I loved reading; I was not required to read all the books I read due to my genuine love for reading and words. Because of that, I excelled in English.
In other words, two teachers may give the same assignment two completely different grades based on their own grading style. This puts an incredible amount of stress on a student because they need to complete assignments that will satisfy their current teacher, whose expectations and grading style could be very similar or very different from the student’s previous teacher. Alfie Kohn believes that the influence grades have on a student’s life doesn’t help this situation, and may even make it worse by providing students with a false sense of security about their knowledge. In her article “From Degrading to De-grading”, she states that scores on tests can be largely based on how the test was written and what skills were tested (Kohn 240). Therefore, it is up to teachers to identify what topics students must master in order to be proficient and score well on standardized tests. But when the class is not structured with a consideration for the material used on such tests, students enter the test blind to the skills that they will be expected to know and use. Anyone can memorize a list of facts off a study guide and score well on a multiple choice test the next day, but skills such as analyzing literature and interpreting a handful of graphs containing data from a scientific experiment are skills that require time and hours of instruction to master.
In “What is a Grade” by Pat Belanoff, she explains the pros and cons of the grading system. In Pats ' essay she states “Perhaps the solution would to abandon grading altogether in writing class. I confess that this a solution that appeals to me greatly.” (151). Grades should not be present in the way we test students’ learning ability. School seems to be more about learning the material for a brief moment just to get a good grade rather then to actually learn and think about the information being presented.
Before we can look at how grading affects learning Farber suggests we look at how it has affected students (333-334). The greatest effect of being graded happens to the individual. Farber asks, “Did you need grades to learn how to drive?” We have become “grade junkies.” Without the grades students can’t learn (333). Vogel agrees that students believe grades are the motivating factor in learning, but only for the money. Students want the grades because high GPA’s equal high paying jobs (338-339). Another negative effect of grades is that students want the best grade with the least amount of learning but this causes conflict with professors because the professor’s goal is different compared to the student’s (339). Grades have positive effects too. Farber believes that grades give us discipline, but not self-discipline. True self-discipline comes from wanting something not coercion (334). Farber defines self-discipline as revising one paragraph all night because one enjoys it (334.)
Students understand the consequences of low grade averages, so they constantly evaluate grades by keeping up with their averages. Low grades cause academic probation. During the probationary period students are encouraged to focus on applying themselves to bring grade averages up to standards. While focusing on averages, students are able to change their study habits or learning styles for instance; some students learn by hands-on-training and others by reading comprehension. The grade scale can determine if a student needs further instructions or tutoring. One the other hand, students study habits play an important role in their grades. If a student makes the wrong decisions about studying and preparing for class their grades will suffer drastically. Study habits need to be evaluated and processed for tips to succeed.
Without anyone pushing students to the fullest extent of their comprehension in certain subjects, there will not be enough material for the educator to give a coherent grade, which results in giving a pupil an unearned mark.... ... middle of paper ... ... Instead of encouraging them, they do the opposite. It will give such students “false feedback about their ability,” making them believe that what they are doing is proper, that it is the standard set of skills that everyone has, and that they will succeed in almost anything with the same attitude.
One of the issues, which Boyer points out , is that teachers and students have different expectations from college education. She says that the teachers are mainly concerned about students’ comprehension of the material, their attendance and attention while students’ hopes are to get good grades and to be well prepared for exams. It seems that the system of grading pushes students to not care too much about what is being taught from an understanding perspective, but only promotes more concern about grades instead. Some students don't really pay attention unless the instructor mentions an exam or something that will be graded. Furthermore, be...
In “How Grading Reform Changed Our School,” author Jeffrey A. Erickson discusses about how it is common in high schools to pass each student by their accumulated average of the entire class period. He described many examples to display the way of grading in high schools such as in behaviors, lessons, and tasks. He talks about the changes that were made and were in effect to achieve a grading average that reflects the student 's’ abilities and knowledge .
Teachers have always used grades to measure the amount a student has learned. This practice is becoming ineffective. Many students have a wide range of grades, which show that grades may not show what a student really knows. Therefore, the standard grading system should be replaced. Some reasons why grades should be replaced are bad grades can hinder a child’s performance, grades define who a student is in the classroom, and grades are not an effective way to see if students have learned the material. The current grading system should be upgraded and every school should incorporate the plus/minus system in their method of grading.
When students have easier grading criteria, it increases their ability to learn the material instead of focusing on earning better grades without understanding the material. Students sometimes need grading criteria that will allow them to focus on their studying more than focusing on how they will be able to pass their classes with good grades that will not affect their GPA’s. For example, I have taken many classes throughout my college career such as Psychology, Philosophy, and Statistics, some of them I need as major requirements. I took the classes and I have no idea until this moment what I have learned in those classes. As said, I have learned the material for these classes to pass the exams, and forget what I have learned the day after the exam. In this case, I do not blame myself that I have not learned the material as I have to, because I learned it to pass the class with a good grade instead of passing the class with the
A statement from the Huffington Post states, “From a very young age, we are told the importance of getting good grades. Especially in high school, we are told time and time again that our grades affect what college we will get into. While grades are extremely important, people often forget about the importance of learning, not just getting good grades. There is a difference between the grade received in a course and the amount of learning that took place in the course.” Parents and institutions should teach the importance of learning. The society around the upbringing of students emphasizes getting good grades as apposed to getting every detail and aspect mastered. School priorities should be reevaluated and changed for future students
But is this really helping a student succeed? How are they going to succeed if they have not gained any knowledge? It is not right for someone to give a student a grade they do not deserve. Stuart Rojstaczer in “Grade inflation Gone wild” has an interesting opinion on students. He says, “When students walk into a classroom knowing they can go through the motions and get a B+ or better, that’s what they tend to do, give minimal effort”(75).
One of the reasons that grading systems should be required is to ensure that each student has retained the information that is being taught. Diane Ravitch agrees with this statement in her essay “In Defense of Testing.” Ravitch says, “They [test] protect us…from inept drivers, hazardous products and shoddy professionals.” (139). Ravitch is saying that test as a form of grading help to ensure that each person is knowledgeable in the field that they are in and give people a sense of security when they must put their trust in such professionals. There are many basic classes that are required for each major depending on the university that one attends. It is essential that the information obtained during these courses is kept in case a need arises for it in a future career. If the grading system is taken ...