Current grading practices do not encourage teachers to help students improve, because only the students are blamed when they fail to learn. If every student achieved all the objectives of a given course, every student would earn an A - an unacceptable state of affairs in the current view. Thus teachers are reinforced for using methods that ensure that some students will not succeed. For example, instruction is often provided in a unidirectional manner, as in a lecture, and interaction between the lecturer and the students is discouraged. Moreover, teachers often create conditions that inhibit students from challenging them or asking questions.
Most people find it difficult to sit and listen to someone else talk for long periods of time.
Those students who can tolerate that situation best will tend to receive higher grades. In developing examinations, many teachers tend to focus on objective information that cannot be disputed. By emphasizing the memorization of facts, however, such teachers discourage debate, inhibit the expression of opinion, minimize teamwork and cooperation, and force students to listen passively - the very worst way to learn. An emphasis on memorization deprives students of opportunities to ponder their ideas critically or to discuss their ideas publicly. Students have to remember the facts only long enough to pass the next exam.