{"id":33,"date":"2012-11-08T02:14:09","date_gmt":"2012-11-08T02:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/marcielewis\/?p=33"},"modified":"2012-11-08T02:14:09","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T02:14:09","slug":"conversation-cafe-topic-is-it-time-to-eliminate-grades-in-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/marcielewis\/2012\/11\/08\/conversation-cafe-topic-is-it-time-to-eliminate-grades-in-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversation Caf\u00e9 Topic – Is it time to eliminate grades in education?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night I attended a \u201cConversation Caf\u00e9\u201d hosted by Brock University Department of Community Learning<\/a>. The idea behind the \u201cConversation Caf\u00e9\u201d is that they are public forums where anyone is welcome to come, share ideas, co-create knowledge, and build relationships. The conversations are usually moderated by a professor or community guest, who has an area of research related to the question being discussed, who is responsible for getting the discussion started. Each week there is a different topic<\/a> being discussed, and although not all of the related directly to education a great deal to. Last night, I think many people left with more questions than when they arrived which I think is a great way to get any meaningful discussion started.<\/p>\n

The discussion last night was around the question\/topic of \u201cIs it time to eliminate grades in education?\u201d. The discussion was introduced by Dr. Susan Drake<\/a>, a professor in the Faculty of Education who is particularly interested in innovative educational practices. When looking at \u201cgrades\u201d it was marks or the assessment component (A, B, C) and not the grouping of students (although this could also be examined and I am sure it would be an interesting discussion).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In order to look at if it is time to eliminate grades in education, it is important to understand the historical context of \u201cgrades\u201d \u00a0as an assessment of students in the first place. Schools are historically designed around the factory model which was designed to \u2018process\u2019 students through a standardized experience. The \u2018bell curve\u2019 was also used to distribute students in terms of norm referencing \u2013 with the majority of students receiving a \u2018grade\u2019 in the middle of the spectrum (B\u2019s and C\u2019s) and less students as you move toward the polar ends of the spectrum (D\u2019s and A\u2019s).<\/p>\n

As time has evolved especially over the last 10 years, the assessment component in the education field has begun a transformation. More recently the belief that all students can achieve has moved to more of a \u2018j-curve\u2019 with more students at the higher end of the spectrum. Along with this \u2018j-curve\u2019 has come a lot of media attention to policys around grading such as students not receiving zero\u2019s (For an interesting look at this topic read Joe Bower\u2019s Giving Zeros<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Ontario, the document \u201cGrowing Success<\/a>\u201d has been recently (2010) introduced new assessment, evaluation, and reporting procedures. Looking at assessment in terms of \u2018assessment of learning\u2019 (summative assessment<\/em>), \u2018assessment for learning\u2019 (diagnostic and ongoing assessment<\/em>), and \u2018assessment as learning\u2019 (reflective assessment<\/em>) has adjusted the assessment practices in schools. \u00a0Assessment is now more of an ongoing process that guides instruction and is constantly informing the teacher of where each students understanding is and they are able to work with student to continue their growth. I like to think of it as a continuous feedback loop where students understanding\/achievement is always\u00a0improvable.<\/p>\n

The research that is available regarding grades and feedback is interesting<\/a> \u2013 as most often if there is a letter grade assigned with feedback most of the time students do not read the feedback but instead only look at the grade. I quickly noticed this at the beginning of my teaching career \u2013 after spending hours coming up with valuable feedback to students and then seeing them not really care about anything more than the grade. A recent edition of Education Leadership focused specifically on Feedback for Learning is an excellent source of many articles related to this topic. One of the best articles from that month was by Grant Wiggins \u00a0\u2013 Seven Keys to Effective Feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some people now wonder if it is time to eliminate grades as a form of assessment in education altogether.<\/p>\n

Why do we need grades? was a question that came up during the conversation and the answers were interesting. \u201cTo get into university\u201d was one answer that came from the crowd \u2013 but is that really the best way to determine if someone possesses the skills to be successful in university? Another person suggested that he was motivated by grades and things that were not for a grade he didn\u2019t usually try as hard on. This comment was one that struck a cord with me because at this point the person is not completing the task for the learning experience and what was to be learned from completing the assignment but was instead doing it for a reward.<\/p>\n

Some of the questions that were still circulating at the end of the evening included:
\nHow do grades take away from the learning experience?
\nCould students learn the same\/more without \u2018grades\u2019 and more focus on providing effective feedback for learning.
\nHow do we educate parents\/society about the changes happening in terms of assessment?<\/p>\n

Overall, it was an interesting and engaging discussion. It was refreshing to speak with a wide cross section of people that are not necessarily teachers to get their views as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night I attended a \u201cConversation Caf\u00e9\u201d hosted by Brock University Department of Community Learning. The idea behind the \u201cConversation Caf\u00e9\u201d is that they are public forums where anyone is welcome to come, share ideas, co-create knowledge, and build relationships. The conversations are usually moderated by a professor or community guest, who has an area … Continue reading “Conversation Caf\u00e9 Topic – Is it time to eliminate grades in education?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,15,13],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-assessment","tag-feedback","tag-grades"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/marcielewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/marcielewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/marcielewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/marcielewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/marcielewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/marcielewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/marcielewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/marcielewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/marcielewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}