Existential Questions in Education

 CHAPTER 5: Traditional grading demotivates and disempowers Interview students. Are they motivated to achieve success or to avoid failure? What specific actions, policies, or words by teachers cause students to experience one type of motivation  instead of the other? Do you think of your  tasks at work as performance or mastery goals? What affects how you define the goal? How does this affect how you pursue the task? In what ways do schools and classrooms end a message of competition for achievement? How does your school’s treatment of awards and honors promote or undermine a growth or fixed mindset? Post your answer to the questions above in the comment section here by clicking "Enter you comment" >  choose "name/URL"  in the drop down menu  and add your name before typing your comment and clicking publish .  Comment on two peers' posts by clicking "reply" > choose "name/URL" in the drop down menu underneath their posts  and add your n...

CHAPTER 3:   How traditional grading stifles risk-taking and supports the “commodity of grades” In this chapter, we'll discuss the following questions: How have different supervisors (or those whose opinions you care about) responded to your mistakes? How have helpful responses impacted you and your effectiveness? How have unhelpful responses impacted you and your effectiveness? Recall something you learned to do outside of the school context. What motivates you to learn and to continue learning when you struggle? Some teachers think, “If I motivate students to learn with points now, they’ll realize success and become internally motivated.: If you believe this, how could you test this theory? How Effective are the use of points for students who are the least motivated and engaged? How might the use of points –the addition and subtraction throughout a student’s day —affect those students’ relationships with adults and their self-concept about whether school is for them? Post your an...

Chapter 1: What Makes Grading So Difficult to Talk About? Based on collaboration with peers during the orientation on January 21, type response to the following questions: What makes it hard for us to critically examine traditional grading practices? Read chapter 1 and provide responses to the following questions: 1. What are some deep beliefs you have about students? What motivates and demotivates them? Are they more concerned with learning or their grades? 2. What is your vision for grading? What do you wish grading could be for students, particularly for the most vulnerable populations? What do you wish grading could be for you? In which way do current grading practices meet those expectations, and in which ways do they not? 3. What brings you to this book study? What are your goals for this course? How will the way you read it help or hinder you from realizing those goals? 4. Which of your grading practices do you believe best support learning? Why? Which of your grading practi...