Journal 4....marks as vehicles

Mona Bazzi

EDU645: Learning & Assessment for the 21st Century (MRB1228B)

Instructor: Alicia Holland Johnson

What do the authors mean when they say that “it’s all too tempting to use marks as vehicles to reach, or try to reach, other ends”? Do you agree with their perspective on this? Why or why not? What types of “ends” do you think educators might try to reach through marks, other than assessing learning?

The authors Kubiszyn & Borich mean by “it’s all too tempting to use vehicles to reach, or try to reach, other ends?” (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2012, page 246); marks should be considered as a reflection for the students’ academic achievements in reading, math, and other materials. I think that we have to consider these observations since any other perspectives would be reflected through another assessment criteria. Moreover, students’ tests are assigned to provide feedback about academic achievement in order for students to be compared according to their achievement. If marks reflect only academic achievement and are assigned consistently according to a system, such marks may be compared with considerable validity. But when a single mark represents a hodgepodge of factors; like achievement, attitude, attendance, punctuality, or conduct, then teachers have to consider students achievement in all subjects, (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2012, page 246). For example, some student might have certain discipline problems but at the same time they do well in their academics. Teachers would find it difficult to control them, so they tend to evaluate their behavior in a negative way that would affect the students’ grades. Consequently, students and parents would be shocked when looking at the evaluation and would be depressed from the teachers’ reaction and students would feel hopeless of such marks and consider learning as a hopeless aspect.

As a teacher, I would say that students usually expect grades and consider it as the main reason for being at school since it would affect their future education. On the other hand, teachers should be more aware when grading students’ achievement and have a separate mark for conduct and promptness. These marks should be reported as vehicles to reach an end of disruptive behavior not as academic achievement.  So in this way students would feel unsatisfied and would dislike the school and the teachers.

In my opinion, grading system should motivate students to put more effort in their tests. Also, marks can’t be used as a punishment tool since grades would affect students’ intention to succeed and would disturb their thinking about the school in general.

In conclusion, grades are the basic motivator for students to achieve their classroom goals. So, there should be a classification between academic discipline and grades. Teachers must not mix between the two systems when evaluating their students, since grades are always considered as the students’ motivators.  Hence, grades should be based on achievement, not conduct. As long as grades continue to be based on factors other than achievement, students’ achievement would be lesser (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2012, page 248). Personally, I think this is not fair!

Reference:

Kubiszyn, T. & Borich, G. (2010). Educational testing & measurement: Classroom application and practice (9th ed.).