When I was a student, I “believed” the grading system and tried to excel in the system. When I did not get a good grade, I thought I was not as smart as other students with higher grade.
Ever since I started teaching my courses at university, I have been skeptical about this system. In short, I think the assumed ‘advantages’ of grading system (it motivates students, it provides them feedback that helps them to improve later, it is a reliable and clear information about their performance and learning) can be rebutted, or questionable at least. And there are downsides of the system that (at least in my view) clearly overweigh the ‘advantages’. It adds unnecessary stress and anxiety on students, administrative burden on teachers, unproductive conflicts between teachers and students about what fair grade is – and the most importantly – it actually hinders students’s meaningful learning rather than promotes it.
The grading system is so deeply ingrained in today’s education system and beyond (for instance, grades are important for students’ career prospects and opportunities outside of the school). Therefore it requires long-term and large-scale changes. Fortunately I am not alone in thinking this and there are already a few initiatives and debates on this topic – a good place to start.
https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1443
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4041495/
https://stacker.com/stories/2838/colleges-alternative-grading-systems
Hoko Horii 