What does “effort” mean in a grade? How does grading effort affect students? Many teachers simply define effort as how hard a student tries and apply a grade for a good attempt as a motivational factor. Whether or not grading effort is a good practice is hard to say, but there are some issues that are worth considering.
Effort Grades Compete with the Objective Assessment
Teachers are often concerned about the accuracy and objectivity of grades. They want grades to reflect clearly what students know about specific standards. Grading effort compromises objectivity since it is often unclear what is being graded.
To define effort as trying is not sufficient. Often it reflects attitudes, participation, attention, helpfulness, cooperation, and other aspects of behavior that are not typically graded. If objective grading is the goal, personal judgments about effort make grading subjective.
The Contradictions in Effort Grading
While society generally may applaud hard work ethics, it does not applaud effort with poor results. When the family car is taken in for repairs and the mended part fails to function the mechanic will not get paid for assuring the customer that he tried hard. School is not the real world, but some of the expectations of the real world can be appropriately taught in school.
Students can and sometimes do go beyond their skill level on effort grading.Their introduction to the real world may be disappointing when they suddenly realize that their best efforts — based on simply trying — are insufficient.
Also, while students and teachers may support effort grading to raise grades, they seldom support lowering grades for lack of effort. The amount of effort that students put into a particular task varies according to academic ability and other resources. Students and parents alike will welcome points added for trying, but likely protest a penalty for lack of effort.
A student is not penalized for a top-notch science project if his science teacher knows that one parent was a PhD. level engineer who served in some advisory capacity on the project thus perhaps reducing the effort the student put forth.
The Main Reason for Grading Effort is Motivation
Teachers and society in general believe that hard work should be recognized. Adding points for effort seems like a common sense way to promote effort in students and sustain motivation. Society may admire those who try, but those who try and succeed are admired more.
One problem is that effort is difficult — perhaps impossible — to quantify. Effort grades are invented grades with a largely charitable purpose. Teachers hope and intend to motivate students with recognizing effort, but what does it teach students?
Beginning learners who pass by virtue of effort grades may come to believe that how hard one tries is as important as what one knows. Proper studying in order to acquire better grades may not be reinforced. Students need to learn to discriminate between good effort and unproductive effort.
Studying daily on short tasks produces better learning than cramming the night before a test. If students do not understand the concept of distributed practice as opposed to massed practice their study habits may suffer. Students may also come to feel less competent about their abilities to learn and resent teachers who do not give them credit for effort.
What Students need to Understand about Effort
From the beginning of instruction teachers need to discuss effort and how it affects learning. Examples of positive effort that produce better grades may include:
- Attendance — being in class on time exposes students to more opportunities to learn.
- Daily studying — the issue of massed versus distributed practice discourages cramming.
- Note-taking — student proficiency in writing down the most important material will vary without some instruction in note-taking.
- Asking questions — some students ask for clarification, many don’t, all should.
- How to work with rubrics — teachers who provide rubrics for certain tasks should provide instruction on how to use them.
- Old fashion study habits — not all students know how to study; teachers need to be sure.
The clarification of what effort is and how it can naturally affect grades is perhaps the best thing a teacher can do for students because it tells them what effort is and what it is not. Grading effort is widely practiced at all levels of education. Its intention is generally to motivate students who try. Whether or not simply adding points for trying motivates is an assumption not necessarily based on evidence. The practice compromises objectivity as effort is difficult to fairly score. There are important contradictions that arise when grading for effort. Teachers might have more success in communicating to students what kinds of effort will naturally affect their grades.
Sources:
- “But I Really Tried! Helping Students Link Effort and Performance,” psychologicalscience.org. (Accessed: January 28, 2012)
- “Grading. The Issue is not how but Why,” alfiekohn.org. (Accessed: January 28, 2012)
Harvey Craft - I am a retired educator with diverse experience. I read anything science, education, and history. I write to share what I learn.
