Should we grade effort in the classroom?
Many teachers use effort grades in their classrooms. Effort grades are grades students receive to reflect how much work students have put in on the topic being studied. Schinske and Tanner (2014) define effort grades as a grade given to students for merely engaging in the course material. Swinton (2010) further explained that students will earn better grades by putting in more effort, and class participation can be included as part of an effort grade. I feel that effort grades are a valid portion of a grading system, but effort grades need to be recorded separately from academic grades. It is important to know what students have achieved according to learning standards, so this is the academic grade. A student's effort is also good data, but this should be a separate grade, which we should call an effort grade. This is a fundamental change in how most schools currently record grades. Generally, teachers figure one grade, which is somewhat of an average of many grades (including effort grades, if they choose to use these) figured together. Figuring effort along with academics all in one grade skews the reality of how much students have actually learned. Therefore, we need to design grade cards that reflect both areas.
References
Schinske, J., & Tanner, K. (2014). Teaching more by grading less (or differently). CBE Life
Sciences Education, 13(2), 159–166. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.cbe-14-03-0054
Swinton, O. H. (2010). The effect of effort grading on learning. Economics of Education Review, 29, 1776-1182.
Comments