This month, we learned that the Henri-Beaulieu elementary school is working to gradually eliminate grades from its classes. Last week, it was the turn of the Quebec Federation of Educational Establishment Directors (FQDE) to declare itself in favor of the elimination of marks and averages from school report cards. An important discussion is taking shape, much to the displeasure of those who value a school that disciplines students and prioritizes their performance.
Thus, for columnist Mathieu Bock-Côté, this bad idea comes from professionals alienated by the field of educational sciences, which “cultivates the ideal of an education without authority, without a teacher, without constraints, almost playful. In other words, who cultivates an idea of education contrary to the laws of life”. This is an opinion, but it would not be useless to mention that it is contradicted by several sociological, historical and anthropological studies, and no doubt by the expertise of a non-negligible proportion of teachers at all levels of education. education.
For us, questioning must affect all levels of education. We teach at the college level, after eleven years of numerical evaluation. Here are the conclusions we draw from its effects.
First of all, the notes do not express learning and, for this reason, they constitute the poorest means of communication between teachers and students and between colleagues. A grade of 80% may be the result of a strong student who experienced health issues that disrupted her session; or that of a weak student who worked hard and made significant progress between the beginning and the end of the session; or that of a student passionate about the subject, but struggling with an undiagnosed learning disability. There are dozens of learning scenarios for the same note. In general, learning pathways are diverse, multifactorial, and too complex to be adequately expressed by a grade.
Second, the grades cause anxiety and stress that strongly impede learning. While the Quebec school, and society in general, sees the importance of taking care of our mental health, this consideration alone is enough to call into question the encrypted report cards at school. In CEGEP, student performance anxiety is no longer an exception, it is the norm. Students compare themselves to the average, rarely to themselves. The feedback we give on student papers is most often ignored, or read exclusively as justification for points awarded or taken away, and not as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Then, the marks punish the error, however integral part of the learning process. Learning from mistakes, taking risks, exploring, trying to go after an idea or a project should be much more valued by the school. Alas, each mistake costs “points”. This encourages students to take a minimum of risk to maximize their (quantified) benefits, and therefore to deprive themselves of important opportunities to better understand their interests, strengths, and needs.
In addition, grades pervert the pedagogical relationship between teachers and students. They guide him towards the justification of grades and the haggling of points. Freed from the shackles of grades, this relationship could regain its pedagogical meaning, namely that of supporting and encouraging everyone’s learning.
Finally, in general, the problem of grades joins that of educational inequalities. The school notes to classify the pupils among themselves, which is not a pedagogical purpose. This is what rightly denounces the report of the Higher Council of Education “Evaluate so that it really counts”, which launched the reflection of the Henri-Beaulieu school on the notes.
We mark to select the “best” (for special vocations, private schools, university, scholarships, quota programs, etc.). In this sense, grades are necessary not for life, but certainly for the meritocratic ideology, according to which everyone deserves their fate in perfect equality of opportunity.
But the meritocratic ideology is as false as it is unjust. False, because in a society with increasingly marked inequalities, schools fail to ensure equal opportunities. False also, because unchosen individual realities (mental health, family environment, parents’ level of education, etc.) invalidate the ability of professors to objectively measure the individual merit of their students.
Finally, meritocracy is unfair because it teaches losers in the school system that they have only themselves to blame, and makes winners believe that they alone deserve all the privileges and benefits. that their academic success brings them.