The Truth About Grading and Motivation in Education

📚 Schools prioritize grades over actual learning, causing students to focus on what teachers want rather than gaining knowledge.

🔑 Grades were originally intended to standardize the measurement of student learning, but the use of bell curves and rankings has led to flawed evaluation methods.

🔄 The education system and society as a whole are based on assumptions about learning and behavior that may be faulty, requiring a reevaluation of our approach to education.

📚 Grades are used as a measurement of learning and a tool for motivation.

❌ Grades are not an accurate measurement of learning and fail to effectively communicate student progress.

🥕🔫 Grades act as both rewards and punishments, but they do not actually increase motivation or promote meaningful learning.

Schools have become businesses where students purchase grades, college admission, scholarships, and jobs with obedience currency.

Motivating people through rewards is a myth; decades of research show that rewards decrease performance, creativity, and intrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation devalues tasks, decreases interest in learning, and leads to minimum effort and risk-avoidance.

Motivation is not solely driven by money, and more money doesn't necessarily equal more motivation to work.

Extrinsic motivation, such as rewards and grades, is about control and obedience, rather than producing better work.

The solution to fostering motivated and creative thinkers lies in cultivating intrinsic motivation and providing a sense of enjoyment, helpfulness, and necessity in their work.

🧠 Knowledge is constructed and learning is a collaborative process.

🗣️ Collaboration, engaging content, and student choice are essential in the classroom.

👨‍🎓 Grades can be replaced by valuable feedback, and college acceptance is possible without grades.

📚 Grades do not accurately measure learning and actually demotivate students.

💼 Workplaces need to provide more freedom, power, and choice to employees.

💰 Paying workers a livable wage is essential for motivation and job satisfaction.

🌍 The foundations of our society are based on bad science that dehumanizes and demotivates everyone.

💪 Human nature is not laziness or selfishness; rewards breed laziness and selfishness. Without rewards, we can tap into our true capabilities and be free to pursue our passions.

📚 There is a growing movement of teachers who are going gradeless, focusing on learning rather than rating students. Recommended resources on this topic are 'Punished by Rewards' by Alfie Cohn and 'Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning and What to Do Instead.'