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Relevance of motivation in teaching and learning
Relevance of motivation in teaching and learning
Relevance of motivation in teaching and learning
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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
The article written by Michael Thomsen addresses the issue: should we as a society continue using a standardized grading system. Thomsen includes many reasons supporting his ultimate conclusion that we should not continue with any system of standardized grades. However, the reasons he uses to support his conclusion are affected by significant ambiguity which weakens the overall argument.
In his essay, "Why Colleges Shower Their Students With A’s,” Staples claims that student grades are increasing for the wrong reasons, causing college degrees to become meaningless. Staples provides evidence that average grades have increased significantly over the last several decades, but claims that it is not because students are working harder. The real explanation for grade inflation, he argues, is the effect of grades on both students and their professors. Teachers give more A’s to receive better evaluations and increase job security. Students give more importance to their grades as a result of the rapidly increasing cost of a college education. Staples argues that modern
“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.
In “Grades and Money,” Steven Vogel makes it clear that he is disappointed and frustrated with what grades have become. He believes that grades have become commoditized and that students’ grades suffer because of their relation with money. Vogel also believes that students no longer take any risk with their education. I agree with Vogel that grades are being equated to money by students, that students’ work suffers because of grades, and that students no longer take risks in their educational process.
Within the walls of our educational system lie many adverse problems. Is there a solution to such problems? If so, what is the solution? As we take a look at two different essays by two different authors’ John Gatto and Alfie Kohn, both highlight what’s wrong within our educational system in today’s society. As John Gatto explores the concept if schools are really as necessary as they’re made out to be; Alfie Kohn analyzes the non-importance of letter grades within our schools. Although both essays are fairly different, they still pose some similarities in relation to the educational system in today’s society.
It has been seen that factors like one’s economic and racial background can heavily influence one’s performance on a tests, as they are not given the same opportunities as those given to more affluent students. A student’s emotional well-being is also at stake as many students come out of tests doubting their overall intelligence, even though they were quite confident in the material and so much is hinged on test scores that it places a great deal of pressure on students to do well. Standardized tests also restrict teacher’s ability to learn due to the restrictions that standardized test place on the material being taught, which makes it very hard for teachers to go beyond the required and teach more interesting things. Due to the issues that have arisen from standardized tests many alternative solutions have been used and have been proven to be successful. Some good alternative solutions have been limiting the amount of standardized tests given by sampling a few students, shortening the length of exams, and allotting more time to complete these tests. Other alternatives look to more qualitative approaches in learning by implementing things like projects and portfolios that give an excellent insight to a student’s performance and
Will Harrell was a student at Princeton University when he wrote “A Defense of Grade Deflation” for the Princeton campus newspaper. In “A Defense of Grade Deflation” Harrell argues that Princeton's artificial lowering of grades is good for the academics of the school. Harrell argues that grade deflation will increase standards, differentiate good students, weed out bad students, and make grades more consistent across classes and departments. The fact that Harrell, a student, is arguing for lower grades for his peers makes me suspicious that he stands to benefit from grade deflation. This is certainly not an unbiased article. Also, the author seems pretentious when he talks about raising standards and states that Harvard is a school with low
In today’s society we feel the need to be graded in order to learn. The topic of the grading system has sparked three essays, by three different authors, about the pros and cons of the grading system. First, Jerry Farber, professor at University of California at San Diego, wrote A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System (333). Next is Steven Vogel, professor at Denison University, who wrote Grades and Money (337). The last two authors in this compilation are Stephen Goode and Timothy W. Maier. They both are journalists for Insight on the News. While each of these authors have their own point of view on the grading system, all three essays talk about how being graded affects learning.
What is your definition of gun control? In the essay “There is a reason they choose schools”, you will discover what gun control means to Timothy Wheeler. Wheeler is a major part of the organization, Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership. He has written an essay in which he is trying to prove that without being able to use self-defense, guns pose a public health risk. Wheeler has worked with many physicians, medical students, and scientist who support his theory. By doing extensive studies in previous gun violence cases, they want to prove guns are more than just a health issue, they are a health crisis. Not only to those who carry them, but also to those who don’t. In many of these studies, they used schools as the primary target of gun violence.
In the essay written by Alfie Kohn, “Confusing Harder with Better " talks about the education system and unprepared students. Furthermore, in the essay, the writer mentioned that student due to work very hard to pass the standard tests. Moreover, certain schools do want to higher their standards because they think that will help the students to build their knowledge. The author believes that putting more than the normal on the student’s shoulders will affect them in a bad way instead of the beneficial way. Furthermore, He thinks that making schools harder does not mean necessary that schools will become better they might be the opposite. The writer claimed that there are some reasons behind his
One solution offered by Alfie Kohn, a well-renowned speaker on human behavior, education, and parenting, suggests that teachers would give parents written evaluations of how their child is performing and having frequent conferences available to talk about their child’s performance. Kohn believes that the most effective teachers do not rely solely on standardized tests. Great teachers are able to observe their students and are able to see without the use of exams how well their students understand the concepts being taught. In 1999, Phi Delta Kappa and Gallup poll surveyed the community. Individuals were asked to choose which of four approaches they felt would be the most precise evaluation of a student’s educational development. Using exam scores from standardized testing received the lowest percentage of 27%. Evaluating work that the students have done over a period of time received the highest number of votes at 33%, while the remainder of the votes were divided between letter grades and written evaluations from teachers after observing each student (Pollard, J, 1999).
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.
The School by Donald Barthelme is a short story that proposes the significance of life in front of its reader in the most absurd way possible. Fiction is a story that is not true whereas non-fiction is a tale based on real time. But what genre would best suit this short story by Donald? A fiction because it seems so unrealistic and depressing or a nonfiction because it conveys the true message of life through unusual occurrences of the deaths and life. The School should be considered a non-fiction because it states death is inevitable, life is unpredictable and love is all we need.
“What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning.” That’s what the senior United States Senator from Iowa Chuck Grassley once said. When students get a “F” on their exam, that does not necessary means they are stupid, or they do not know the material. It could only mean they have a different way of learning, or a different way of explaining the material which the teacher is not aware of. There are different ways of learning that students have, and there are different ways they apply their knowledge into real life. Therefore, grades are not the best way to judge the students’ standing in their classes, nor is it the best way to judge their learning process. In addition,
By nature, most students are brought up in an academic environment motivated to get A’s and B’s on their report cards. Those grades sometimes don’t thoroughly report how much a student has learned or gained knowledge in each topic. Some instructors throw in factors totally unrelated to learning, when the main objective of academic institutions is to learn. In order to clearly demonstrate how much a student has learned in the classroom, schools should change their current grading system and teach students how to learn.