Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Grades (marks) encourage students to learn. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
It is an old idea that grades encourage students to learn. The grading system started in the very first teaching method. Teachers start to mark students’ efforts by numbers or letters. There always was a way to describe students learning levels. In the same manner, I personally, agree with the marking idea, I describe three reasons why I believe so.
Firstly, I think, there must be a way to show how much a student has learned. Without any grading system, there would be no evaluation. As an illustration, considering a class with no marking rules, in such a class as a result of lack of scoring, there is no way to find out how much a student has learned. In fact grading system helps both teacher and students to realize what a student has learned and what he has not. Consequently, they can work on weak points and improve them which leads to a better learning process.
Secondly, in an educational grading system, students can compete. Since they recognize there are other student who gets better grades, they would try to achieve that grading level. As a role competition has always been a great motivation for progress. In contrast, take the case of a class in which all the student in spite of all their efforts and knowledge look the same, as a result,students do not need to work harder.
Thirdly, the grading system can cause motivation. Points are like goals that students want to achieve. In other words, there is something to get. Students can see there is still next step for them. Chiefly, if a student gets B in an exam, there would be a better grade waiting for him to gain. Indeed they can feel more complete and more ideal. Besides that, they can satisfy their idealistic feeling which causes them to exceed their learning.
In conclusion, I think it is better to use grade students while teaching, to can show at which level of learning they are. Based on the supporting reasons, I believe, the grading system has significant effects on students learning by encouraging them to solve their study problems, entering to competition and giving them a goal to achieve.
Submitted by Mobina on