In the Name of the Pygmalion Effect

From the wise words of our professor Mr. Michael Bennett, “Grading is a bit of a social construct. It's a way for society to judge or credit something. Evaluation is something we do naturally. We evaluate on a daily basis. When we first meet someone, when we enter a new place, when we taste a new food- we are evaluating. So what purpose does grading serve?”

After being hit with a philosophical question towards the very nature of our academic system, you’d think the idea would make my head spin more- but students have been challenging grading for a long time now. Grading certainly serves a purpose. As we covered in class:  it’s easy, faster, quantifiable, sometimes more consistent than the qualitative measures used to evaluate. Beyond this I’d like to think teachers are capable of giving more customized feedback. 

In an ideal world educators have time to hold students to high standards and execute on constructive criticism without the majority of this being delivered in the form of a letter grade or numerical value. Ideally, we assess students for their strengths and weaknesses and evaluate these in conjunction with one another to plan how students personally improve and study and learn. We however do not live in a perfect world. Teachers are not blessed with an abundance of time or resources. So we have grading (and sometimes evaluating)- can it still be beneficial? Yes. Undeniably yes. 

Despite the cons, grading is a tool teachers can utilize to uphold a certain standard. I personally believe that high standards and hard work are disappearing from the education system. Students struggle with struggling. Especially after COVID-19 and the rise of AI, they don’t want to work hard anymore. They are losing the will to be challenged and I’m sure that grades are not the cause of this. Grades are merely the messenger of bad news. Instead the question may not be what purpose does grading serve, but how can we present grading and evaluation to motivate students?

I have some solutions, but mostly none at all. It’s a hard question, what can I say! Maybe the new system of evaluation and grading means giving educators more time to personalize summative evaluations. Maybe more resources are allocated to offer frequent formative feedback. Maybe grades are removed from the process of quantifying success at the end of major milestones and more reasonably placed as stepping stones toward in-depth evaluations. One thing I know for sure is that the mind is a powerful environment and how you nurture it matters. Place upon one the idea that they will do great and they are more likely to. Hold them to this standard, and they grow to become so. If you take these tools away great! How then are students empowered to think, evolve, and excel?