Most of us aren t there yet. I doubt, for example, that many of us enjoy the intrinsic rewards of our jobs enough to work without pay. Grades are the currency of the teaching and learning process, begins an article from the University of Manitoba. They reflect achievement, abilities and often potential for future success. Although some students take grades very personally as signs of approval or disapproval, it would be difficult to give students a clear assessment of performance without them.
Grades are the motivating force behind learning.
I always give a test on my course syllabus on the second day of class. Assessing performance seems better understood by students when it moves away from the classroom. My grandsons, for example, enjoy their Play Station games and seem to happily accept that only when they achieve certain maneuvers will they receive the password or code to proceed to the next game level. There are certainly no rules or principles of grading upon we would all agree. How a teacher grades reflects a lot about the teacher s background, values, assumptions and philosophy.