I no longer grade my students’ work, and I wish I had stopped sooner

Re:I no longer grade my students’ work, and I wish I had sto... by kqr on Thursday March 31, 2022 @12:58AM (#30863960)

Pink's Drive cites some studies on grading as extrinsic motivation, and one of the Kahneman books touched on it too, but I don't remember if it was the bias or noise one.

How I measure success (or recognise failure, at least) varies between problems. Sometimes quantitative, sometimes qualitative. Sometimes based on theory and process, sometimes based on observation and outcome.

I rarely, however, find it meaningful to know "how close to the goal I landed" because that generally says more about the goal than the outcome.

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Re:I no longer grade my students’ work, and I wish I had sto... by mattcwilson on Saturday April 02, 2022 @02:22PM (#30890417)

Regarding the research - thanks! I do like Dan Pink. Kahneman is still on my to-read list.

So the assertion is that, if grades act as an extrinsic motivator, they replace passion/pride/curiousity as intrinsic motivators? That argument vaguely makes sense to me but personally it feels like more of a “both and”.

As for your approach to measuring success - no offense, but it sounds like the sort of vague, feel-good, don’t-fret-it sort of goal-setting that techniques like SMART goals, KPIs, and OKRs are intended to supercede. Do you do anything like those?

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