Preview

Are Grades an Effective Way to Motivate Students? Essay Example

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
975 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Are Grades an Effective Way to Motivate Students? Essay Example
Wanita Velez

English 101

September 6, 2008

Are Grades An Effective Way to Motivate Students?

“Across America, in state after state, a decade of major reforms in education

has so far failed to produce the anticipated improvement in the quality of our schools

or the academic achievements of our students”. (Diane Ravitch) Its seems that issues

surrounding teachers pay, parental and society influence of the schools, text book

costs, new school gear are more important than the discussion about motivating

students and the impact of grades that reflects on our students. What about raising

standards to ensure students succeed and increase there level of effort. After all our

students are the future and grades are very influential in the way our students will

prepare for the world. Late in 1990, the Office of Educational Research and

Improvement held a national conference on student motivation. The touchstone of the

conference was imperative that all of America's students must rise to the challenge of

higher standards of achievement if the nation is to continue to thrive. One problem

that cannot be overemphasized is that a student’s effort and engagement is activated

by learning, and with learning we have grades which will only benefit to the

achievement students.

I have always believed that good grades have an effective way to motivate a

student. With good grades students are enthusiastic about learning. They are

inspired. Grades challenge and stimulate them to have better academic performance.

An interest in the course and wanting to stay in the class will result in hardworking

and ambitious students. Self-confidence and persistence from positive feedback and

an open atmosphere can increase grades. In a survey students were asked to analyze

their classes in the effect of grades and motivation. Each student compiled a list and

reached a consensus on characteristics. The same eight

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Career Plan

    • 2578 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Because this course is intended to benefit your career development, you will be required to play an active role in class. Much of the learning takes place during class time; thus, regular attendance, punctuality, and participation are essential and will be…

    • 2578 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Students everywhere may feel pressured into doing well in their course classes in order to receive a higher grade. It may not seem that way in high school but to a college student, grades mean everything. Grades are used as motivation for the student to strive for success and in order to be a success, they have to work hard for it. But how much can that student take in order to reach the grade that they want? For a college student, grades are a vital component in the students’ lives which may determine their futures as well. Pressure is what holds the students’ back from getting what they want and they can lead to consequences. Overwhelmed college students are in danger of making harmful decisions about their future.…

    • 873 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, between 1990 and 1999, a well-known advocate for physician assisted suicide, Jack Kevorkian helped 130 patients end their lives. He begun the debate on assisted suicide should be legal or should be illegal. Kevorkian believed in the right to die, “The voluntary self-elimination of individual and mortally diseased or crippled lives taken collectively can only enhance the preservation of public health and welfare” (Kevorkian). He created his own machine that would be used to give the patient a mixture of pain killers and poisons to end a patient’s life. Kevorkian was charged with first degree murder for the death of one of his patients he had helped end their life. Kevorkian tried to get a ballot…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    To be successful in this course, students must be in class on time, attend regularly, come prepared to do work and learn, and clearly demonstrate a cooperative attitude. Attitude is the primary determinant in assessing the “class participation” grade weight – therefore one’s words and actions are regularly factored into one’s overall grade (10%).…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever experienced grade inflation and why it effects so many people? In Scott Jaschik, “Grade Inflation Higher and Higher,” he defends how there are more A’s in four year colleges than two year colleges. Jaschik insists adjunct instructors at community colleges have a lack of job security, students that have a wealthy home life, and students finding a college that is less expensive than other four year colleges. Students need to recognize why grade inflation has impacted many of us, such as the causes and effects in our society. Many of the effects Jaschik quotes, "It's been a disastrous change. We need leaders who have a backbone and put education first." This effects a lot of students’ lives because there are students who are going to school part time as well as working which can be very difficult at certain points. Another quote according to Rojstaczer states, grades are very problematic to…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Titles

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Are grades important? Discuss whether grades are necessary in order to keep students on track with learning.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    There are a lot of students enrolled in high school today that are lacking in some of their academic classes. Teachers today are having a hard time of assuring that these students pass on to receive their diplomas, and want to proceed on to college. To assist with teachers today, I have found the best three ways to motivate high school students to attend and graduate with a sense of pride and accomplishment is making the assignments exciting, rewarding the students, and being understanding and caring.…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Preparing School Leaders

    • 89415 Words
    • 517 Pages

    Our nation’s underperforming schools and children are unlikely to succeed until we get serious about…

    • 89415 Words
    • 517 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever waited till the very last minute to do homework or study for a quiz or test? Procrastination, whether you want to admit it or not, has gotten to everyone at some point. If you wait till the night before something is due or preparing for a quiz or test, you may get a decent grade, but it probably won’t be the best grade you could get if you would have studied days in advance. Some may be proud of the fact that they crammed for 3 minutes and got a 100%, but when you think about it they won’t remember that information even into the next class hour. So, procrastination affects your grades even if you think it doesn't.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Pass/Fail System

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The only thing that will give you as much heartache in school as love are grades (Colaba, n.d.). Throughout a student’s life in school, one is taught from society that the most important aspect in studies is to get good grades. Because of this, students’ motivation, learning, and even his or her personal progress are marginalized by the ‘ultimate goal’, which are the numbers use to evaluate one’s performance.…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Grades, on the other hand, measure how much effort a student put into a course. If a student gets an A, it shows that he or she understands the course material and has put true effort into studying, writing papers, and completing projects. However, a C indicates that a student did not do enough and maybe had no desire to get any better grade. (http://www.eduplan.us/the-importance-of-grades-for-college/). Thus, grades are significant product of extensive advance learning. It is the fruit that student yield after lengthy process of education. Therefore, it plays an essential role of the student.…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Thesis 030414

    • 6332 Words
    • 1 Page

    In a student’s point of view, studying for a long test seems like a waste of time, as test materials only get answered once, and students know that not all lessons that have been reviewed by them appear in exams. However, doing well on tests will have a profound impact on a student’s future. Naturally, grades are concretely used as a measure of what students know and can do, which is in turn, used as a measure of what students may be able to do in the future.3 If students do well on their tests, whether they cheated or not, they will likely be accepted into better colleges. Grades do not define a student’s future success, but somewhat predict them. In general, high school grades are used as a requirement before being accepted to universities; undergraduate grades for graduate school, law school grades to infer how good a lawyer the student will be.…

    • 6332 Words
    • 1 Page
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Success, in an educational institution is measured by academic performance. Over the years, the importance of students doing well in school has become the common concern of parent, legislators, teachers, counselors and psychologist. According to Bell (2002), parents devote a lot of resources to their children 's education because they believe that good academic performance will provide a stable future for them. Also, Wilkins (2001) opined that many educational authorities have sought to find out reasons for the downward trend in the academic performance of secondary school students.…

    • 2576 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mr. Amjed

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages

    First, the students should be allowed to grade the teachers to help them to know their weaknesses. Most of teachers like the grade because it will tell them how much they need to eliminate their weakness. For instance, the grade will let the teachers indicate the topics, which he needs to be aware of it. Moreover, the grade will concentrate on the gaps between the students and the teachers. Some teachers do not pay attention to the gaps that occur in class, and if it is not treated well, it will extend more and more, and then will affect in the entire studying climate. For example, if the teachers don’t listen to their students’ suggestions, the students will not respect teacher classes. And then the teachers will lose the control of their classes. Thus, the grade should be allowed to pay the teachers attention to avoid their weaknesses.…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    online grade submission

    • 2773 Words
    • 12 Pages

    A lot of parents are neither aware nor updated on their child’s performance in school; they did not know the grades that their child had received. Usually, students do not want to show their grades to their parents or their parents live in a distance place that is why they do not have the chance to show their grades even if they like to do so. These are the main reason why we had created this project. Base on our research, nowadays, universities like FEU, DLSU, AdU, UST, UPHS and ADMU…

    • 2773 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays