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Grading is, psychologically, a special case of gamification. There's a debate on this point, but many smart people believe that gamification should only be use

Grading is, psychologically, a special case of gamification. There's a debate on this point, but many smart people believe that gamification should only be used to provide an extrinsic motivator for things that A) have no intrinsic motivation, or B) have a steep learning curve that is discouraging at first. In the latter case, the game mechanics should be removed once the difficult first step has been conquered so that the intrinsic motivation can supplant the extrinsic ones, leading to a naturally reinforcing cycle of growth (and flow). If it isn't removed—or if it shouldn't have been there in the first place—then the game mechanics can completely overwhelm the intrinsic motivators. Here we see that learning is intrinsically motivating by itself; no external rewards necessary. As another commenter mentioned, the Montessori method acknowledges this.

wisty 15y ago
In Australia, continuous assessment is the fad. Shudder. I see it as a vicious cycle. One teacher (or lecturer) sets lots of highly weighted assignments. Students work hard in their class, and ignore the ones that "don't matter". So the other teachers (or lecturers) have to also ramp up, or no-one will study for their classes. It's a tragedy of the commons, and the students are the commons.
- lutorm 15y ago
  Continuous assessment should happen every time someone's teaching. This is "formative assessment", and is essential for informing teaching practice. That doesn't mean you give the students grades.
  - aik 15y ago
    Exactly. The difference is whether the assessment is seen as feedback or an evaluation/judgement by the students (and the teacher). In the case of marking 100% on homework -- that's bound to be seen as an evaluation and hence an extrinsic motivator -- not good. Assessing for the sake of gaining feedback on where the students are (for the teacher) and providing feedback to the students on where they are (for the students) is the way to promote intrinsic motivation.
hugh3 15y ago
Grading (which I'll call marking for the rest of this comment) has three purposes, and you've only described one -- motivation. The second is to let third parties (parents, universities, potential employers) know how well a student has done. The third is the most important: low grades. If a student does poorly then it lets everyone (the student, the teacher, and potentially the parents etc) know that something is wrong. Maybe the student hasn't been working hard enough, or maybe the student has misunderstood some key concept, but getting feedback when your work is bad is vitally important. Doesn't matter much when you're a bunch of five-year-olds studying ancient Egyptians, but if you're studying stuff you actually need to know then you need to know whether you in fact do know it.

wisty 15y ago

In Australia, continuous assessment is the fad. Shudder. I see it as a vicious cycle. One teacher (or lecturer) sets lots of highly weighted assignments. Students work hard in their class, and ignore the ones that "don't matter". So the other teachers (or lecturers) have to also ramp up, or no-one will study for their classes. It's a tragedy of the commons, and the students are the commons.

lutorm 15y ago
Continuous assessment should happen every time someone's teaching. This is "formative assessment", and is essential for informing teaching practice. That doesn't mean you give the students grades.
- aik 15y ago
  Exactly. The difference is whether the assessment is seen as feedback or an evaluation/judgement by the students (and the teacher). In the case of marking 100% on homework -- that's bound to be seen as an evaluation and hence an extrinsic motivator -- not good. Assessing for the sake of gaining feedback on where the students are (for the teacher) and providing feedback to the students on where they are (for the students) is the way to promote intrinsic motivation.

hugh3 15y ago

Grading (which I'll call marking for the rest of this comment) has three purposes, and you've only described one -- motivation. The second is to let third parties (parents, universities, potential employers) know how well a student has done. The third is the most important: low grades. If a student does poorly then it lets everyone (the student, the teacher, and potentially the parents etc) know that something is wrong. Maybe the student hasn't been working hard enough, or maybe the student has misunderstood some key concept, but getting feedback when your work is bad is vitally important. Doesn't matter much when you're a bunch of five-year-olds studying ancient Egyptians, but if you're studying stuff you actually need to know then you need to know whether you in fact do know it.