"Ungrading" is an umbrella term for movements in education that critically reflect on the effects of grades on students' learning. Research suggests that emphasizing extrinsic motivators such as grades reduces student engagement and distracts them from substantive feedback that could help improve their work. Further, pedagogy that emphasizes grades, points, and penalties can create an adversarial culture that breeds distrust and encourages student "gaming" of systems to achieve the highest possible grade with the least possible work. Ungrading encourages a collaborative learning culture that emphasizes engagement and growth for its own sake.
Some resources:
- Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead)"
- Ungrading advocate Jesse Stommel’s website
- Stommel, "Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop"
- Joshua Eyler: “Stress, Grades, and the American Way! Time for a Re-boot.”
- Susan D. Blum talk on ungrading
- David Clark and Robert Talbot, "Grading for Growth"
- John Warner: “There’s no right way to ungrade” (Inside Higher Ed)
- Sarah Rose Cavanagh: “Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion”
- #Ungrading hashtag on Twitter
- Duke ungrading page
- Notre Dame ungrading page
- MSU MAET ungrading video
- Teachers Going Gradeless: https://www.teachersgoinggradeless.com/
- Catherine J. Denial: "A Pedagogy of Kindness" (released July 2024)
- Lots of resources and talks at "The Grading Conference" website