Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) (Teaching and Learning in Higher Education)

by Alfie Kohn

The trouble isn’t that too many students are getting As but that too many students have been led to believe the primary purpose of schooling is to get As.

The first challenge, then, is that getting rid of grades is not enough if our classrooms are still more about performance than learning. The second challenge is this: while it isn’t easy to figure out how to assess learning in a constructive (or, at least, not destructive) way, it is even more challenging to create a curriculum that’s worth learning.

When high school or university teachers protest that it is unrealistic to get rid of grades because students wouldn’t do the reading or even show up without them, these teachers are, on one level, offering evidence about the harm grades have already done to these kids.

Further evidence about the effects of grades is that grades discourage risk-taking and encourage replication of safe tactics.

There is no room for student agency to breathe in a system of incessant grading, ranking, and scoring.

“Research shows three reliable effects when students are graded: They tend to think less deeply, avoid taking risks, and lose interest in the learning itself.”

They need to know these things because they are going to be citizens of the world, and part of being a citizen means to have an understanding of culture, history, and the ideas that are the foundation of our nation.

When students see a red x on their papers or we tell them they are wrong, we are shutting them down and ending potential learning experiences.

First, learners need the freedom to grow and learn in their own ways, and second, they need the freedom to make mistakes without being punished.

An important feature of badging is that students are not required to give negative grades; they simply award a badge when they admire someone’s work in that category.