Grades and the Educational Process
Right from the moment that a child is born, their education journey begins as they get to watch other infants and also imitate them. As an infant grows to a young child, the formal part of education kicks in as they indulge more in preschool and playdates. As the child further progresses, academic lessons take over as the major focus as the child now becomes intertwined with the educational system. The problem is that we seem to have forgotten that education is far more than learning facts from books. The current education system is a major factor in the socialization of the members of the society; it is through education that we learn about cultural norms and expectations that are reinforced by our daily outside world experiences (Guskey). But how can all of this simply come down to grades? The use of grades in learning makes it less supportive in the real world situation. The consideration of the universal use of the system of grades indicates a rather scholastic attainment of students within the confines of the institutions. In essence, grades should not be a mandatory part of the educational process as they are not a real and genuine measure of the attainment of knowledge as the formal setting does not allow the actual testing of the student’s competencies.
Right from a young age, I was reminded of the importance of attaining good grades, though high school as well as in colleges. I was told that the grades that I get would determine the college that I will attend. The premise is that as my focus was solely on grades and ensuring that they were high, I forgot the importance of learning. In one of my science classes in high school, while experimenting, I was so sure of the procedure, but I was not keen on the result. I felt that knowing the procedure would give me the best grades, but then I did not know what the point to the entire experiment was. As much as we need well-decorated marks in our sheets, it doesn’t point to the real path of learning. Grades are indeed helpful in the measurement of our performances in the educational system, but the basic idea of real learning if forgotten (Schinske and Tanner). Grades are recognition of the entire learning process, but it has now been turned in to a judge of individual productivity as well as the caliber of work that one does. A question comes along: how well students with high grades would perform when faced with amplitude tests?
The valuation of what one has learned is important, but the conversion of this valuation into a priority becomes a major problem. The fact remains that real learning is meant to increase our skills but also to help each one of us grow in terms of character. Personally, grades have helped me in discovering that I haven’t fully understood a particular concept to be able to explain it well when questioned about it. But does this include my skill set or am I learning something concerning the demands of the industry? The importance of grades is diminished by the fact that top companies tend to place their fresh college candidates on training for at least 2 months each year (Schinske and Tanner). Despite the grade one gets, it doesn’t mean that they can fit into a specific work area. Furthermore, teachers do not need a grading system to teach well, while students do not need them in the process of leaning. Grading is not a good element in the judging of the adequacy or competence of students. There has to be a meaningful compromise in the role of teachers, especially considering the idea of child-centered learning.
The science behind students’ stress lies in the grading system that forces students to strive for better grades. Stress and anxiety come in that most students lack the growth mindset; hence when they face an academic setback, they lack the means to deal with it. A decline in grades might get under one’s skin as I have experienced that it was difficult to come home with a bad report sheet. Stressed-out students find themselves thinking about their grades rather than how they would learn from their mistakes or even how they could overcome the various obstacles (Guskey). Real learning, on the other hand, allows students to capture the important elements that increase their competencies. It is the pressure for attaining good grades that lead to instances of cheating, which also increases a student’s stress and anxiety.
In essence, grades should not be a mandatory part of the educational process as they are not the right tool that measures the competencies of the student. The grading system simply increases the student’s anxieties as they believe they have to perform better. Yet within the real-world situation, one would be required to learn how rather than what to fit into the workforce.
Works Cited
Guskey, Thomas. “Making The Grade: What Benefits Students? – Educational Leadership”. Ascd.Org, 2020, http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct94/vol52/num02/Making-the-Grade@-What-Benefits-Students%C2%A2.aspx.
Schinske, Jeffrey, and Kimberly Tanner. “Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently).” CBE life sciences education vol. 13,2 (2014): 159-66. doi:10.1187/cbe.cbe-14-03-0054