Alfie Kohn - Some thoughts

After browsing Alfie Kohn's online repertoire in which he shares some very interesting and engaging ideas about education, one article in particular stood out to me. "The Case Against Grades" caught my attention due to the emphasis on more authentic means of assessment I've been exposed to recently in my education classes. After being exposed to almost no other means of assessment besides tests and grades throughout my schooling, I was having a hard time reconciling the implementation of these alternative means of assessment with the amount of time teachers have in a given school year. However, Kohn makes some very compelling points. The first is that "Grades tend to diminish students' interests in whatever they are learning." In my experience, this is entirely true. In high school, as soon as an assignment was given, all I cared about were the things I needed to focus on and do in order to get the best possible grade, disregarding any "fluff" or extra information. The second is that "Grades create a preference for the easiest possible task." Why would I branch out and experiment with doing a project a new and creative way when I know that a standard paper or poster will earn me enough credit to get an A? Why would I read the entire chapter when the quiz is always on the vocabulary listed on the first page of each chapter? When a a student is focused on grades, they learn to filter out any "unnecessary" information and refrain from taking any risks in favor of taking the easiest, safest route possible. And lastly, the argues that "Grades tend to reduce the quality of students' thinking." When students are concerned with simply memorizing as much information as possible, they don't take the time to stop and ask questions such as "Wait, does this really make sense? Is this a plausible explanation? Is this something that can really be proven." Placing such a great emphasis on grades forces students to channel all of their energy and focus into reading and remembering the information without fully understanding it.

In other articles, Kohn describes how competition and rewards have similar consequences, incentivizing studnets to do just enough or perform just well enough to beat out the other person or receive the reward, respectively. As school and education reform progresses, one of the most important things we need to remember to do is to teach our students to think for themselves, and that the only person they should be competing with is themselves. There will not always be a reward for every task or someone to compete with, so it is important that students are able to motivate themselves and push themselves to do the best they can do. It is my job as an educator to provide students with opportunities to think creatively and for themselves, acting more as a facilitator of engaging and enlightening conversation than a distributor of exams or a keeper of the grade book.