In our quest for excellence in education, we sometimes ignore the bigger picture. We ask ourselves what we must do to get students to succeed in the current educational paradigm without ever questioning the merits of the paradigm itself. Thus we carry with us the relics of a less enlightened age, hideous specters that haunt our classrooms.

One example of this is the dangerous obsession with grades that has grown like a tumor in the minds of our educators as well as the students and their parents.

What’s wrong with grades, you might ask. They tell us how well a student is doing in school, right?

Decades of research tells us otherwise. Countless studies have shown that students demonstrate less interest in learning as a result of being graded. The more they are made to focus on how well they are doing, the less engaged they tend to be with what they are doing. In fact, it is a well-known finding of motivational psychology that external rewards undermine intrinsic motivation for any task.

An emphasis on grades causes students to try and minimise their chances of doing poorly. Therefore they are less inclined to take on challenging tasks and choose an easier assignment on a familiar topic rather than exploring something new or taking an intellectual risk.

A series of studies reveal that students given grades were significantly less creative than those who received qualitative feedback but no grades. In another experiment, students were told that they would be graded on how well they learned a Social Studies lesson had more trouble understanding the main point of the text than those students who were told that no grades would be involved. Even on a measure of rote recall, the graded group remembered fewer facts a week later.

The most destructive form of grading by far is that which is done on a curve. The number of top grades is made artificially scarce. This is not only intrinsically unfair, it also encourages students to see others as threats or obstacles to their own success. Such an arrangement severely undermines the kind of collaboration that has been shown to help students think better and learn more effectively. It also compromises students’ relationships with each other as well as with their teachers.

And those students who end up with poor grades learn to view themselves as failures. This shatters their self confidence and makes them less likely to succeed in future endeavors.

It is also worth questioning whether grades tell us anything at all about how well a student is learning. For example, what does a ‘B’ in English tell us about what a student is good at, what he has understood and where he might need help? Moreover, that grade is as subjective as it is uninformative. It is an arbitrary rating based on a teacher’s perceptions about grading, temperament and mood at the time of grading. Research has shown that an assignment may well be given a different grade by two equally qualified teachers or even the same teacher who reads it at two different times.

The evidence is damning. And no conscientious educator can ignore such a glaring contradiction in our approach to teaching and learning. So what can we do to fix this?

Many schools and universities throughout the world have successfully abolished grades. They use alternative means of reporting student learning that are much more informative and constructive as well as free from the detrimental effects of grading. Narrative report cards with in-depth qualitative summaries of student progress have been used successfully in many schools. Others have used portfolios of carefully selected student writings or projects that demonstrate their interest, achievement and improvement over time. Student-led parent teacher conferences, presentations, exhibitions and many other creative and meaningful opportunities for sharing student progress may also be used. Even if it is not immediately possible to eliminate grades, and indeed the process must be gradual, there are several ways to dilute or minimise the harm. Most importantly, it is essential for teachers and parents to stop emphasising the importance of grades. Instead they should emphasise on a love for learning and discovery and try to excite the inherent curiosity and thirst for knowledge that we all possess. Resorting to external rewards and punishments is a poor substitute for this and an indictment of our ability to educate our children effectively.

Apart from this, teachers can avoid giving grades or marks for work done throughout the year or at least try to make these grades less visible. Students may be encouraged to assess some of their own work or play a part in deciding the criteria for assessment. Some teachers may choose to assign a final grade that the student and teacher mutually agree upon through a one-on-one discussion. All these strategies have been used by educators throughout the world and have yielded very encouraging results.

So let us seek to make a change in our culture of education and strive towards excellence by making more thoughtful and informed choices. With our efforts, we could help students realise their full potential and have a truly meaningful learning experience.

The writer is a teacher of English language arts.