I'm really starting to enjoy the Art of Possibility as the issues that the Zanders raise continue to mirror concerns that I face almost daily as a teacher.
About halfway through the 4th chapter, the authors hit on one of the most difficult discussions that I have with students every semester. While building upon their theories from earlier chapters that many of our social norms are artificial constructs, the Zanders began to question the greater concept of grading. From the outset, I fully agree with their observations that grading can often be a very arbitrary process which sometimes provides very little information towards an individual's true comprehension of the material at hand.
As such, I regularly try to explain to my students that grades are not the final arbiter to success in life, career, and creative pursuits. Instead, grades are more akin to a valuable guide for concept retention that can help measure personal progress within a specific subject area. My overall goal when discussing this perspective with students is to help them feel less intimated by the prospect of a challenging grade. My hope being that students would be motivated to try new activities and / or difficult challenges unencumbered by the pressure that always achieving a certain grade point can create.
However, as the authors deftly point out, whenever you marginalize the impact of grades (or other such measurement tools), you risk completely devaluing the measurement all together. We risk trivializing the entire system of academic feedback if grading system begins to feel arbitrary or even "game-like".
This area of discussion really struck me as I was reading an article that raised similar concerns only earlier this week. In one of the most recent issues of Fast Company magazine, marketing guru David Boguski was trying to explain his abrupt departure from the industry he had literally been leading with a bevy of awards, clients, and accolades in tow:
"I wasn't attached to the idea that I was an ad-creative-director rock star. I don't believe any of that stuff. It isn't my legacy. I guess I just don't aspire to corporate legacy. I'm convinced that the greatness that matters more is the greatness people achieve through helping each other, through collaborating, more than the greatness that's achieved by grabbing all you can or getting all you can or building all you can. The 'you' needs to go away for there to be the real greatness to
things. So for me, the genuine part, it's a weird thing -- to get to the real you, you have to be less you."
I don't think it is a mere coincidence that the Zanders, Boguski, author and educator Seth Godin, and other cultural figure heads are merging around a movement that is based in both transparency and personal authenticity. Today, the internet and other modern mass communication technologies have brought a mountain of information, media, and entertainment to our fingertips. However, this influx of information has almost exposed us all to too much content, clouding our ability to judge and assess the quality of such media and digital information as well as our own identities and self worth. Authenticity is critical in today's world into only for consumers, but also for our students.
Authenticity is also crucial in our interactions with young people in the classroom. How are we assessing content? How are we motivating students to challenge themselves with individualized new opportunities and pursuits which would best support each and every learner?
In short, we need to help students see their authentic selves and highlight those talents and unique abilities that they, like all humans, possess. One of the greatest lessons that I've learned from the EMDT program here at Full Sail is that the ultimate value of many of the educational technologies we've discussed isn't it replacing the traditional classroom. These technologies and tools can all be used to augment the traditional classroom with more individualized opportunities to increase and enrich student-to-teacher interaction, material retention, and individual creativity in learning activities and assignments. I'm looking forward to implementing these resources carefully this fall to enhance the classroom experience, so that a room of 30 can ultimately feel like a classroom of one.
Later in the Fast Company piece, Boguski elaborated on his time away from advertising, "I've been messing around with this less-competitive version of myself, because the other doesn't make you happy. You can't win enough."
I think this is a tremendous observation that correlates directly to what we're talking about in class and the Zanders are raising in their book. No one can "win" enough, and within the obvious construct of grading, actually achieving an "A" is not necessarily enough to truly develop one's inner skills and creative aptitudes or acquire the vast myriad of diverse skill sets which are imperative to rising above today's political, environmental, and societal challenges..
Finally, I think Gandhi summarized these points best by declaring the following:
"Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning."
If we can learn to bring even a fraction of that encouragement and perspective to our young people, I think their learning and development could be significant. that's my challenge today.
http://www.fastcompany.com/alex-bogusky-tells-all
Scott,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! It really is amazing how much a grade can limit a students ability to push themselves to think outside the box and to put their creative skills to work. Some student are so scared of not making the grade they limit themselves to only meeting the requirements instead of challenging themselves to create something out of the ordinary.
I have to admit I was the same way growing up and even think that way now from time to time. I have learned to simply meet the requirements so I get the A I want. I find that there are times I have received an A for an assignment because I just went down the list to make sure I followed the requirements, but really didn't spend the time to learn anything along the way.
The Art of Possibility has got me thinking a lot about the everyday challenges I deal with. I really have enjoyed this book and the insight it is bringing into my life.
Scott,
ReplyDeleteExcellent breakdown of the chapter. I recently held a discussion with 16, fourteen year olds about grades, and the impact of A, B, C, D, and F, and how they are currently measured. I asked them if it was fair that teachers measured them according to two criteria; the academic bar that is set by the teacher, and the comparison of each student to their peers. They indicated that neither were really fair, but grades were something that indicated academic success, and were needed to progress to college. I think I implanted a bug in their young minds which is reflected in your comment, "grading can often be a very arbitrary process which sometimes provides very little information towards an individual's true comprehension of the material at hand."
Thank you for bringing this to light once again.
Nicely done.
I, along with Jodi, am guilty of doing just enough to get the A. It seems that by reading your blog, I have a better understanding of the reading, and am often spurred on to thoughts of my own. Your students must really appreciate your motivation and exposition of material. Way to bring the whole coaching aspect of the reading to light. Thank you for your post, it made me think (as always).
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Scott that grades should not be the goal. I had a student who became upset when I said that I didn't like to give A+ s because I felt I wasn't testing the student's learning, but what they already knew. However at the same time I find myself upset with me because I have not earned that A+ in all the classes here at Full SaIl. I keep telling my students it is what they have learned that is important and I feel they are all A students. I even feel bad when I must give a failing grade, however many of the students have earned exactly that. If there is no reason to try then why do it?
ReplyDeleteMotivating students to do better or more than they have to is not easy especially with ones who are second or third generation welfare. I have watched these students wear $100. pairs of jeans to school with the price tag still on them yet not have the paper or pencils necessary to complete their work. Theses same students plan extravagant parties for themselves and their friends when asked how they would pay for it, they tell you my mom gets so much welfare money we'll use it to pay for the party. They have no sense of values and feel that everything in life will be given to them.