Downloaded 26 times
![Purpose?
“My goal is to get a 3.7 or higher. . .
. My dad will give me 50 bucks if I
get it—even though 50 bucks isn’t
really that much. . . . Do I have any
other goals? [long pause] I mean
look, grades are the focus. I tell
you, people don’t go to school to
learn. They go to get good grades
which brings them to college,
which brings them the high-paying
job, which brings them happiness,
so they think. But basically, grades
is where it’s at.”
- High school student
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300098334](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/rethinkinggrades-121104091138-phpapp01/75/Rethinking-Grades-Assessment-and-Motivation-in-the-21st-Century-23-2048.jpg)
![The Tortoise and the Hare
“The story of the tortoise and the
hare, in trying to put forward the
power of effort, gave effort a bad
name. It reinforced the image
that effort is for the plodders
and suggested that in rare
instances, when talented people
dropped the ball, the plodder
could sneak through. . . . [T]his is
part of the fixed mindset.”
- Carol Dweck
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-tortoise-and-the-hare](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/rethinkinggrades-121104091138-phpapp01/75/Rethinking-Grades-Assessment-and-Motivation-in-the-21st-Century-29-2048.jpg)
![“Low Effort Syndrome”
“[L]ow-effort syndrome is often seen as a way that
adolescents assert their independence from adults, but
it is also a way that students with the fixed mindset
protect themselves. They view the adults as saying,
‘Now we will measure you and see what you’ve got.’
And they are answering, ‘No you won’t.’”
- Carol Dweck](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/rethinkinggrades-121104091138-phpapp01/75/Rethinking-Grades-Assessment-and-Motivation-in-the-21st-Century-32-2048.jpg)
Rethinking Grades: Assessment and Motivation in the 21st Century
- 1. Rethinking Grades: Assessment andMotivation in the 21st Century Matt Edmonds Saint Mary’s School
- 2. Overview Presentation Definingthe Challenge: Putting Grades in Context Where We Have Been Where We Are Where We Need To Go Motivation Mindset Culture Discussion
- 3. Where We HaveBeen (According to Sir Ken Robinson) Education as we know it is a product of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. http://unclutteredwhitespaces.com/2010/07/sir-ken-robinson-on-creating-an-education-system-that-nurtures-creativity/
- 4. The Key Question Whatpurpose does industrial education serve in a post- industrial society?
- 5. Where We Are: The Changing Marketplace Abundance Can your product/service really compete in a marketplace that is flooded with similar products and services? What sets it apart? Asia Can your job be outsourced more cheaply? Automation Can your job be performed more efficiently by a computer or machine? http://www.archwebb.com/blog/?p=120
- 6. Where We Are: The Reality for Young People “When we went to school, we were kept there with a story, which is if you worked hard and did well and got a college degree, you would have a job. . . . . . Our kids don’t believe that, and they’re right not to.” - Ken Robinson
- 7. Where We Are: Credentials to Competencies Even if it is possible to get a job based on one’s credentials—including grades—the key will be keeping it.
- 8. Where We Are: Credentials to Competencies Critical Thinking Communication Collaboration Creativity Initiative and Entrepreneurialism* Agility and Adaptability* * Tony Wagner, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need—and What We Can Do About It
- 9. Where We Are: The Push for Innovation Grant Lichtman, The Learning Pond http://learningpond.wordpress.com
- 10. Curriculum and Assessment: Two Pieces of the Same Puzzle Even as we search feverishly for the latest technologies and most cutting-edge pedagogical approaches, many of us often rely on “old-school” grading methods that undermine our stated commitment to “21st century” learning. As independent schools, we have the freedom to completely re-invent our curricula—but if we don’t get assessment right, the puzzle will remain unfinished.
- 11. Where We NeedTo Go: Three Tests 1. Grading practices should strive to encourage intrinsic motivation and engagement in students. 2. Grading practices should cultivate in students a mindset that is oriented toward long-term growth rather than short-term achievement. 3. Grading practices should nourish classroom (and school) cultures that reflect our “21st century” needs and values.
- 12. Test No. 1 Gradingpractices should strive to encourage intrinsic motivation and engagement in students.
- 13. “Carrots and Sticks”vs. Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose Carrots and sticks (e.g., grades, cash, etc.) don’t work nearly as well as we think they do. Instead, people are motivated by three primary factors: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. http://jonrwallace.blogspot.com/2012/06/12.html
- 14. Why Carrots andSticks Don’t Work Less of What We Do Want Intrinsic Motivation High Performance Creativity More of What We Don’t Want Short-Term Thinking Unethical Behavior http://americancreed.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/carrots-and-sticks/
- 15. Three Factors Influencing Motivation Autonomy Mastery Purpose
- 16. Three Factors Influencing Motivation Autonomy Mastery Purpose
- 17. Autonomy “This era doesn’tcall for better management. It calls for a renaissance of self-direction.” - Daniel Pink
- 18. Three Factors Influencing Motivation Autonomy Mastery Purpose
- 19. Mastery The “Three Lawsof Mastery” Mastery Is an Asymptote Mastery Is a Pain Master Is a Mindset http://ryanmassey.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/mastery-is-an-asymptote/
- 20. Mastery “People who have an easy time of things, who get 800s on their SAT’s, I worry that those people get feedback that everything they’re doing is great. And I think as a result, we are actually setting them up for long-term failure. When that person suddenly has to face up to a difficult moment, then I think they’re screwed, to be honest. I don’t think they’ve grown the capacities to be able to handle that.” - Dominic Randolph, http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/09/18/magazine/18-magcover-20110918/18-magcover-20110918-sfSpan.jpg Riverdale Country School (NY)
- 21. Three Factors Influencing Motivation Autonomy Mastery Purpose
- 22. Purpose “Whatever they’re studying,be sure they can answer these questions: Why am I learning this? How is it relevant to the world I live in now?”
- 23. Purpose? “My goal isto get a 3.7 or higher. . . . My dad will give me 50 bucks if I get it—even though 50 bucks isn’t really that much. . . . Do I have any other goals? [long pause] I mean look, grades are the focus. I tell you, people don’t go to school to learn. They go to get good grades which brings them to college, which brings them the high-paying job, which brings them happiness, so they think. But basically, grades is where it’s at.” - High school student http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300098334
- 24. How Grading Can Influence Motivation As both carrot and stick, grades have the potential to undermine autonomy, mastery, and purpose all at once.
- 25. Test No. 2 Gradingpractices should cultivate in students a mindset that is oriented toward long-term growth rather than short-term achievement.
- 26. Mindset Fixed mindset vs. Growth mindset http://blackboardbattlefield.com/2012/02/25/book-review-carol-dwecks-mindset/
- 27. Mindset Fixed= Proving Growth = IMProving
- 28. The Tortoise andthe Hare “As children, we were given a choice between the talented but erratic hare and the plodding but steady tortoise. The lesson was supposed to be that slow and steady wins the race. But, really, did any of us ever want to be the tortoise? No, we just wanted to be a less foolish hare.” - Carol Dweck http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-tortoise-and-the-hare
- 29. The Tortoise andthe Hare “The story of the tortoise and the hare, in trying to put forward the power of effort, gave effort a bad name. It reinforced the image that effort is for the plodders and suggested that in rare instances, when talented people dropped the ball, the plodder could sneak through. . . . [T]his is part of the fixed mindset.” - Carol Dweck http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-tortoise-and-the-hare
- 30. How Mindset Influences Performance(and Vice Versa) When grades are seen as personal judgments, it is natural to avoid being judged negatively. How?
- 31. How Fixed MindsetStudents Avoid Being Judged Negatively Reducing effort Blaming the teacher, resisting help Cheating Avoiding more challenging tasks or quitting altogether
- 32. “Low Effort Syndrome” “[L]ow-effort syndrome is often seen as a way that adolescents assert their independence from adults, but it is also a way that students with the fixed mindset protect themselves. They view the adults as saying, ‘Now we will measure you and see what you’ve got.’ And they are answering, ‘No you won’t.’” - Carol Dweck
- 33. Lazy or Rational? “Students of all ages who have been led to concentrate on getting a good grade are likely to pick the easiest possible assignment if given a choice. . . . The more pressure to get an A, the less inclination to challenge oneself. Thus, students who cut corners may not be lazy so much as rational. They are adapting to an environment where good grades, not intellectual exploration, are what count.” http://www.betterworldbooks.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-well-educated-id-0807032670.aspx
- 34. Fulfilling Our Mission? “EachApril when the skinny envelopes—the rejection letters—arrive from colleges, countless failures are created from coast to coast. Thousands of brilliant young scholars become ‘The Girl Who Didn’t Get Into Princeton’ or ‘The Boy Who Didn’t Get Into Stanford.’” - Carol Dweck
- 35. Fulfilling Our Mission Especiallyif we claim to prepare students for more than just college, the cultivation of a growth mindset should be non-negotiable.
- 36. Test No. 3 Gradingpractices should nourish classroom (and school) cultures that reflect our “21st century” needs and values.
- 37. Conflict No. 1 In keeping with the shift toward post-industrial education, we need classroom cultures that emphasize deep, meaningful learning and the development of new skills. These valued new outcomes are difficult to assess—and especially difficult to quantify.
- 38. Conflict No. 2 In a smaller, increasingly connected world, we need classroom cultures that emphasize ethical decision-making and the interdependent nature of a global society. Grades have the potential to make students more self- centered, manipulative, and unethical in their pursuit of success.
- 39. The Tail ThatWags the Dog “A school’s use of letter or number grades may encourage a fact- and skill-based approach to instruction because that sort of learning is easier to score. The tail of assessment thus comes to wag the educational dog.” - Alfie Kohn
- 40. Keeping What Works Theremight be good reasons not to abandon what has worked for us in the past—tests and quizzes, traditional essays, etc.—but we should be sure that we’re not keeping those things around simply because we’ve figured out how to grade them more easily.
- 41. Grades and the Student-Teacher Relationship Sorting our students might be part of the job, but the fact is that grades tend to put teachers and students in an adversarial relationship. That makes it more difficult to help them learn and grow, which is a more important part of the job.
- 42. Grades and the Student-Teacher Relationship As classrooms become more active, more collaborative, more differentiated places, teachers will necessarily function more as coaches than as disseminators of information. Thus, it naturally follows that student- teacher relationships will become even more important than they always have been.
- 43. Grades, Peer Relationships, and Collaboration: Two Dangers Comparison Competition Students: Lower self-esteem Sends the wrong message about the purpose of education Teachers: Lower standards Provides an incentive to sabotage the sometimes messy process of collaboration
- 44. Grades and UnethicalBehavior “Again, we can continue to blame and punish all the students who cheat -- or we can look for the structural reasons this keeps happening. Researchers have found that the more students are led to focus on getting good grades, the more likely they are to cheat, even if they themselves regard cheating as wrong.” - Alfie Kohn
- 45. Conclusion “The practical difficultiesof abolishing letter grades are real. But the key question is whether those difficulties are seen as problems to be solved or as excuses for perpetuating the status quo.” - Alfie Kohn
- 46. Feedback or MoreInformation? No grades, please. Matt Edmonds mcedmonds@sms.edu
- 47. Some Questions forDiscussion How might we give our students autonomy and still maintain high standards? How might we make the pain of mastery more bearable? How might we move students from the fixed mindset to the growth mindset? How might we grade in a way that values the process as much as the product? How might we promote healthier classroom and school cultures by rethinking grading practices?