There’s always that one person who didn’t study and asks to cheat off you, or decides to use AI on their assignments. They didn’t study for the test or are just never at school, so they don’t understand any of the material.
I used to be that person.
I would skip all the time junior year. I failed multiple classes. School wasn’t on my priority list. I just wanted to stay home and sleep, but I ended up turning things around so I could graduate.
I know I’m not the only student who struggles with motivation to do work, or – on the other side of the equation – who is overly stressed about grades.
I tell myself, realistically, I won’t use most of the stuff I learn in high school, so I didn’t have the motivation to do the work. This sort of thinking causes students’ engagement to decrease, which can end up causing students to cheat. When students feel like the effort they’re putting in is not important, it makes doing the work a drag, so they decide to use Chat GPT or copy a friend.
But I’ve often wondered: if school focused less on grades, would students engage more?
I believe that removing grades would (for me) boost learning percentages, by creating a deeper, more engaged approach to education, rather than focusing on grade results. This would encourage students to focus on feedback and self assessment, to be more curious, and to help to build long term skills.
Grades, a letter & a GPA are the main factors on why students stress so much, and yet are also a huge factor to why students slack. Grades are supposed to be a communication about to the extent to which students learned the material. But does that really work? There are schools that focus on detailed written feedback instead of A-F grading. For example: Reed College and Brown University.
Without the pressure of a specific grade, students might be more likely to take a risk, master a subject, and actually try to focus on genuine understanding. It might also reduce the shame of failure. It could encourage low performing students to ask for help rather than not engage.
For example: I used to think I was horrible at history. But I found out it was the teachers’ teaching style. They never looked at my work and gave feedback on what I could do to have a better performance in my work, and barely taught the class. I ended up failing. I switched teachers and ended up passing their class with an A-. This was because the new teacher had great communication on expectations, gave feedback, and did the assignments with the whole class to ensure understanding.
I think overall, from my own experiences, If schools focused more on engaging students to show understanding, I think engagement from students would rise tremendously.
