Removing Grading Gives Freedom to Learn

We just finished our unit on energy in my physics classes. The unit centered on 2 major activities, a 3 day activity in which students built marble roller coasters out of pipe insulation and a 2 day activity in which students built virtual rollercoaster using an iPad app called Coaster Physics. Both of these activities were connected to the topics we were covering in the unit such as potential energy, kinetic energy, and the law of conservation of energy. But there was no required formal write-up or submission for either.  At the end of the unit, students had a variety of choices for the focus of the summative assessment. Two of the options were an analysis of the data from the different coaster activities. So for many students, the work done during on these activities over 5 days was never formally graded.

As you can imagine, both of these activities were highly engaging. In the marble coaster activity, students worked in groups to create a functioning coaster with multiple obstacles.

In the simulation, students built a virtual coaster and are able to track energy, speed, acceleration, and g forces. If you are interested, below is a tutorial for the app.

After the unit was over, I wanted to get a sense of how students felt about putting all this work into something that was never reflected in the gradebook. Also, I wanted to see if these “low stakes” activities actually helped them learn the content. So, I polled my students to see how they felt.

These numbers definitely indicate a trend, but I wanted students to express their opinions on the non-graded activities in their own words. I’d like to share some of their responses.

“I think it is good practice and personally I like doing practice without the pressure of a grade.”

“I like these activities because they give me more of an opportunity to learn without having to worry about messing up.”

“I think it is engaging and fun to do these activities, and it also helps me learn and understand concepts without the added stress of being graded”

“I personally think that featuring fun projects without the stress of grades really helps in assisting in introducing people to a new concept, or even as a break during a particularly stressful time span grade-wise”

“it's a fun real world example that allows students to learn about the topic without worry of being downgraded for not understanding it.”

“Because these activities weren't graded, students were concerned more about learning the concepts and understanding the simulation. (Thats a good thing) :) whereas if these activities WERE graded, students would be more stressed, and would not focus on the actual Physics part of it. nongraded activities enhance learning :)”

“I like that it is not graded because then I don't feel pressured to stick to what the example looks like, I have the freedom to try stuff out and not worry about whether it affects my grade or not.”

From these comments, I really get the sense of the stress students feel from being assigned a grade. They need to do something right and fear making a mistake. By removing the grade, students were able to get it wrong without the fear of failure. Moving the focus from the grade to the learning.

“I like being able to do projects like this, because they help you understand concepts in a more fun and engaging way.”

“I thought the marble lab was fun and it was a nice break but still helped me learn about physics without me even realizing it until analyzing the energy of things”

“I really liked it because it helped me understand the concept more it was also fun to do which made it better to learn about”

“They were really fun! I learned about the physics topics and I feel like it helped develop our problem solving skills too.”

“I enjoyed doing the marble coaster because I was able to work with other people and come up with different ideas to try.”

“I actually enjoyed those two simulations, i feel like the roller coaster sim actually helped me understand and even though it wasn't graded thats ok cause it helped me learn”

“I like to do hands on stuff because it helps me understand better because i am able to ask questions if i have any because my brain wants to know why something is happening instead of being forced”

These comments I feel speak to the engaging nature of the activities and the need to have richer experiences that build more than just basic content.  These speak to building habits of mind through activities that engage more than some of my other classroom tasks.

While it’s nice to hear the positive, it’s just as important to listen to the voices of those who were not all in.  Their voice will help inform changes to make the experience valuable for all learners.

“I thought the marble coaster was a lot of fun to build and make and design, but the coaster simulation kind of stressed me out. I tried really hard to get all the work done only to find out it wasn't even due and we didn't have to turn it in.”

Hearing this response made me realize that when I introduced the activities, I never said that they wouldn’t be graded.  I think I was afraid that if they weren’t going to be motivated by the grade, they wouldn’t try as hard. Clearly, that is not the case with a truly engaging learning activity. So while many felt relieved of stress, this student was not.

“That they are very suddenly stopped and felt very rushed. If there was more time given then I felt that I could have learned more than I already did.”

If an activity isn’t going to be graded, that doesn’t give me the excuse to not building off of it and make connections that carry forward. So, finding ways to pull the learning out of the activities into the rest of the unit is key.

“I like doing the activities because they were fun and educational, but I feel like if I'm doing something that we spend multiple days on I should be getting some sort of grade.”

“They were fun but they did not really teach me much about what we were learning and were a lot of work not to be graded”

I think these two comments both highlight the importance students feel about being graded. I think, though, providing feedback in some form could prove to be just as effective. The feeling that we are not just doing something for the “fun of it”.  Building in opportunities for students to communicate learning is key.  If these activities are related directly to the unit concepts and a student isn't seeing the connection, that falls on me.

So while not grading a learning activity is clearly beneficial, that doesn’t mean that we can’t still focus on the learning process. If students are truly engaged in an activity, it is easier to have them reflect and communicate their experience in a more conversational manner.  In addition, without the stigma of being wrong, the can express their thoughts freely.

But, this doesn’t mean that summative assessments shouldn’t be graded. I am not advocating for that. If we are required to report out grades by our institutions, there still needs to be a place to communicate out mastery as a grade. But, we should think about how we can possibly remove the stress from that process as well. While some “stress” may elevate performance, anxiety can become an obstacle for learners to demonstrate their true level of mastery.