▶ Your Answer : Some people may think that grading is not an feasible option to encourage students to learn. However, I think that grading is a viable option to make students study harder. This is because it can arouse competitive sprit among students, and can be a criterion for rewards.
To begin with, grading can make students feel the sense of competition. By comparing each other with grades, students can get the sense of accomplishment or disappointments that can lead them to study harder than before. Students who get high grades would put more effort on their study to keep their positions. Others who have lower grades would have struggle with studying not to feel disappointments and be better against other classmates. For example, according to a research, which compared pass-fail courses with grading courses, conducted by the University of California, students in grading courses showed more active participation in lectures than ones in pass-fail courses evidently. Students in grading courses responded that grading makes them to study harder when they get sense of achievement or disappointments from every test result. On the other hand, ones in pass-fail courses responded that the courses do not make them study hard or focus on lectures.
On top of that, grading can be a measure for rewards. In the beginning of young's school lives or elementary schools, most of students merely study without specific purposes. Surely, some of them have their own dreams, but they can constantly change, and even some students have not thought of dreams neither. In these conditions, grading can be a criterion for rewards which inspire them learn enthusiastically. Parents can give their children toys, dolls, or clothes they want to have if they get certain grades in tests. This make students study hard and be active in lectures. Or sometimes even without rewards from others, students can feel sense of accomplishment from their high grades and keep study hard themselves. For example, I who once did not have any interests on study put much effort on my first mock test in high school. I sincerely prepared and finished the test, since my mom promised to me that she would buy a cellphone if I get the first position in my class. So, I studied hard and got the first one. As time went by, even without presents or rewards to my parents, I could keep study hard for sense of accomplishment from good grades.
To sum up, grading let students to feel competitive sprit and can be a criterion for rewards which would make them study hard. For these reasons, I agree with the statement that grading encourages students to learn. |