The point you shared about increased student anxiety about the unfamiliarity of the grading method is something I have encountered. I always wonder about the hypothetical situation in which ungrading is more familiar (more instructors do it, or a student has taken multiple classes with an instructor who does it) and whether that anxiety falls away, or whether it is about the cognitive load of managing both traditionally graded and "ungraded" courses at the same time? Difficult to figure out (to my mind anyway)
Yes! For the first time this semester, I have a student who took an ungraded course in high school, and they seem enthusiastic about the practice.
I also just think there's a big trust issue. A running average is reassuring and seemingly objective. But with collaborative grading at least, some students are concerned that I'll pull the rug out from under them at the last minute by assigning a lower grade than they expected. Which is fair! They really have no way to know that I won't.
I also have experience with the anxiety finding and the trust issue.
At my institution, the group that has, collectively, shown the highest levels of anxiety about ungrading is honors students. From feedback, and what I see students doing in class, I think this is because honors students are, not surprisingly, comfortable with and feel rewarded by conventional grading. Many have internalized a model of school as a kind of competitive game. Moving away from that creates a lot of uncertainty in terms of whether and how rewards (e.g., As) will come. Some have even expressed to me that the alternative grading practice is demotivating.
Lack of trust as a source of anxiety is something I see more in my regular classes. A lot of that seems to be around the lack of grades or grade points on individual assignments, like their progress is being hid from them. In most cases, these feelings tend to fade after the first round of self-assessment. For some, I think the issue is less the grading system and more just figuring out where to find feedback and assignment records in Canvas.
For what it's worth, I've had a number of students tell me they signed for additional courses with me because of my approach to grading and I've also had students come to my classes from ones with other instructor who also used some form of ungrading and I would say that familiarity with the whys and hows of teachers choosing one of these approaches does engender confidence for students.
Thank you for sharing this! As someone who has been experimenting with un-grading and encouraging colleagues to do the same, I find it to be encouraging news. With regard to the finding that students in ungraded classes think more about grading, I wonder if part of what's happening is that un-grading encourages students to develop a critical consciousness around grading practices, rather than simply accepting them as a fact of life. I don't know if that's what the study was picking up, but if that's part of what's happening, I think it's a positive.
I'm happy to report that students in my community college composition classes seem to have taken to un-grading pretty readily. One of the things that I think has helped has been combining un-grading (I actually use a bit of a hybrid system) with giving students a significant amount of time to work on their projects in class, which in turn gives me a significant amount of time to check in with them individually. Doing these check-ins makes it possible to give students in-person, in-process feedback on a consistent basis, which really helps to boost communication and trust.
Yes! I noted in reply to another comment that I do hope this is what's happening with my students...so I guess in some sense I do want them to think more about grades!
I also find workshop time super helpful, for all the reasons you mention. And of course, I don't have to prepare a whole lesson if we're using class time to write 😅
I didn't want to pack this into my previous comment since it's about a different finding.
The fact that a majority of students thought a lot about grades in courses employing ungrading, while, yes, frustrating or disappointing, isn't that surprising when I think about it. In addition to the "people think about things they're encouraged not to think about" dynamic you mention, I also think the reality of grades is hard to escape when, in fact, they will be given at the end of the term. In my case, I typically ask students at three different points in the term to offer a self-grade. I suspect that does provoke a lot of thinking and reflection about grades and grading. My hope would be that this is a different kind of thinking than would be the case in a conventionally graded course. I feel like there must be a difference between thinking a lot about grades in a context where you have a high degree of agency over your grade and one where you don't.
Oh, good point! One of the things I hope students take away from my course is the ability to think more critically about their grades and to separate those grades from learning, intelligence, sense of self-worth, etc. So, I guess that would mean they have to think more about grades in my ungraded class than they would in others...
The point you shared about increased student anxiety about the unfamiliarity of the grading method is something I have encountered. I always wonder about the hypothetical situation in which ungrading is more familiar (more instructors do it, or a student has taken multiple classes with an instructor who does it) and whether that anxiety falls away, or whether it is about the cognitive load of managing both traditionally graded and "ungraded" courses at the same time? Difficult to figure out (to my mind anyway)
Yes! For the first time this semester, I have a student who took an ungraded course in high school, and they seem enthusiastic about the practice.
I also just think there's a big trust issue. A running average is reassuring and seemingly objective. But with collaborative grading at least, some students are concerned that I'll pull the rug out from under them at the last minute by assigning a lower grade than they expected. Which is fair! They really have no way to know that I won't.
I also have experience with the anxiety finding and the trust issue.
At my institution, the group that has, collectively, shown the highest levels of anxiety about ungrading is honors students. From feedback, and what I see students doing in class, I think this is because honors students are, not surprisingly, comfortable with and feel rewarded by conventional grading. Many have internalized a model of school as a kind of competitive game. Moving away from that creates a lot of uncertainty in terms of whether and how rewards (e.g., As) will come. Some have even expressed to me that the alternative grading practice is demotivating.
Lack of trust as a source of anxiety is something I see more in my regular classes. A lot of that seems to be around the lack of grades or grade points on individual assignments, like their progress is being hid from them. In most cases, these feelings tend to fade after the first round of self-assessment. For some, I think the issue is less the grading system and more just figuring out where to find feedback and assignment records in Canvas.
For what it's worth, I've had a number of students tell me they signed for additional courses with me because of my approach to grading and I've also had students come to my classes from ones with other instructor who also used some form of ungrading and I would say that familiarity with the whys and hows of teachers choosing one of these approaches does engender confidence for students.
Thank you for sharing this! As someone who has been experimenting with un-grading and encouraging colleagues to do the same, I find it to be encouraging news. With regard to the finding that students in ungraded classes think more about grading, I wonder if part of what's happening is that un-grading encourages students to develop a critical consciousness around grading practices, rather than simply accepting them as a fact of life. I don't know if that's what the study was picking up, but if that's part of what's happening, I think it's a positive.
I'm happy to report that students in my community college composition classes seem to have taken to un-grading pretty readily. One of the things that I think has helped has been combining un-grading (I actually use a bit of a hybrid system) with giving students a significant amount of time to work on their projects in class, which in turn gives me a significant amount of time to check in with them individually. Doing these check-ins makes it possible to give students in-person, in-process feedback on a consistent basis, which really helps to boost communication and trust.
Yes! I noted in reply to another comment that I do hope this is what's happening with my students...so I guess in some sense I do want them to think more about grades!
I also find workshop time super helpful, for all the reasons you mention. And of course, I don't have to prepare a whole lesson if we're using class time to write 😅
I didn't want to pack this into my previous comment since it's about a different finding.
The fact that a majority of students thought a lot about grades in courses employing ungrading, while, yes, frustrating or disappointing, isn't that surprising when I think about it. In addition to the "people think about things they're encouraged not to think about" dynamic you mention, I also think the reality of grades is hard to escape when, in fact, they will be given at the end of the term. In my case, I typically ask students at three different points in the term to offer a self-grade. I suspect that does provoke a lot of thinking and reflection about grades and grading. My hope would be that this is a different kind of thinking than would be the case in a conventionally graded course. I feel like there must be a difference between thinking a lot about grades in a context where you have a high degree of agency over your grade and one where you don't.
Oh, good point! One of the things I hope students take away from my course is the ability to think more critically about their grades and to separate those grades from learning, intelligence, sense of self-worth, etc. So, I guess that would mean they have to think more about grades in my ungraded class than they would in others...