Marks, grades and their effects in schooling

     As the teacher bird, I've learned that it could be easier to assign percentages that can be translated into letter grades for evaluation assessments compared to a number on a learning map. No matter what type of final evaluations, it should act as a type of feedback for students to know what to work on next. For a student bird, getting percentages isn't always a good thing as it produces stress in students. Specifically, when students get an 85%, they would want that extra percentage just to get a boost to the next letter grade. The question here is, what's truly the difference between an 85% student and an 86% student? If we got a few teachers to mark the same student, their mark can also vary drastically. This puts students into greater stress when it's between 49% and 50%. From the article, it explains that teachers also get fixated on marks and I agree with this because some times when teacher are giving up assessments, teachers run out of reasons to give students especially when the assessments is given out for the wrong reasons. When I say "wrong reasons", some examples include teachers trying to get the class average higher or lower, teachers needing to show parents concrete evidence of why students deserves a specific grade, etc.. Due to many reasons, teachers tend to forget the real reason and purpose for accurate assessments, and this leads to moving further away from focusing on what the students truly needs to get an accurate evaluation of their knowledge and skill. Due to such high focus on grades and percentages, students complete assignments for the sake of getting an A instead of chasing after inquiry, losing their motivation for the subject. 

 

    Something that I also agree with from the article is that student won't need rewards if they get enough stimulation within the classroom. Students tend to only do well with an external reason, like they will get some type of reward. That system will create bad learning behavior since they will only do well if they get a reward, but eventually they will run out of rewards or they will stop receiving rewards, and that's when people usually lose "motivation". Although it might be fixed with self discipline, not many people can transition and develop their own self discipline quickly. Therefore, if activities within the classroom can stimulate their minds and belief for the topic in a positive way, they won't need the external factor reward for them to move forward in the first place.