August Conference

August 25, 2023, 9am – 12pm

Virtual conference with lunch to follow on each campus.

The Call Is Coming from Inside the House: How Grades Undermine Learning and Jeopardize Student Wellbeing

Getting a good grade is supposed to be a marker of excellence, but research shows that grades diminish our intrinsic motivation and emphasize the outcome rather than the process that leads to what researchers refer to as deep learning. Grades also mirror and magnify many of the systemic inequities that are a part of higher education. Further still, rates of anxiety and depression have spiked dramatically for teens and young adults, and academic stress tied to grades is a leading cause of this escalation.

In this workshop, Dr. Joshua Eyler will lead attendees through a structured reflection exercise designed to spark our thinking about the connections between our grading practices, our values, and our beliefs about education. He will then explore some of the research on grades and offer a range of strategies we can try, both in our classrooms and at the institutional level, in order to be more equitable in our classrooms by mitigating the damaging effects of grades.