Sabina Juul Mulbjerg Gurudutta Japee In many cases pass/fail is enough. The grades often take away the focus on what is important. If we are doing interesting things together with our students that also are relevant, learning is a positive "bi-product" of development and discovery. Outcome and discovery are key elements. I have a friend that does high-tech welding. People depend with their lives on the work he does. The work is either pass of fail. Fairly good work just does not cut it.

We should start focusing on outcome and not ouput

Grades are simply output

While outcome focuses on competency and skills of students

In 21st century education should be concerned with competency and skills

Sabina Juul Mulbjerg Gurudutta Japee In many cases pass/fail is enough. The grades often take away the focus on what is important. If we are doing interesting things together with our students that also are relevant, learning is a positive "bi-product" of development and discovery. Outcome and discovery are key elements. I have a friend that does high-tech welding. People depend with their lives on the work he does. The work is either pass of fail. Fairly good work just does not cut it.

i think grades are good indicators for students to self evaluate their progress... so i guess it should be kept but better to include research work...

I think that for basic education to achieve the goal of universalize primary education its enough. But for higher education the grading system may be keep different. Like different test university take beside the academic marks to give admission this may be consider.

Kjartan Skogly Kversøy Thank you for your input. A great analogy. I agree.

Pros and Cons of Pass/Fail Grading:

https://www.tfdsupplies.com/blogs/educator-panel/pros-and-cons-of-pass-fail-grading

I am against this because we will not know the distinguished students who have achieved the highest degrees of success and therefore this will be one of the reasons for failure in the university system, especially when admission to higher studies.

I do not recommend doing that! Grades keep students motivated and competitive which eventually enhances learning outcomes.

I do not believe this is ideal

Yes, especially in clinical programs dealing with people and their health. A 50% pass is barely safe, which leads to manipulation of grades to raise a pass to 80% which defeats all purposes of identifying better performing students (HD, DI) from average passable students (CR, PA). To be fair, the assessment should have as its outcome whether the patient lived or died, but not all scenarios are that dramatic which means a decision needs to be made as to the point at which a student’s actions are safe. How do you allocate a percent grade to ‘safe’ vs ‘not safe’? I do not know, but I do know I want a safe practitioner caring for me more than I want a Triple A+ student who may have no people skills. Same principle for engineering and many other disciplines, even accounting. If your bridge does not fall down and your tax client stays out of jail, then you are ‘safe’ and should pass.

There's a vast body of research on this hot topic. Grades motivate students, however, overemphasizing the grades is led to student surface learning and they may not learn the materials deeply. The issue of assessment culture is also significant here. It takes time for both students and teachers to change their mindset since they have always used grades for evaluation.

All in all, process-oriented assessment of students along with consistent teaching methods which emphasize deep learning and make students learning-oriented instead of grade-oriented should be the priority. I go for pass/fail and giving the students a chance of retaking the failed course by close detection of their weaknesses.

The grading system is inherently subjective. It’s inherently punitive. And it’s inherently reductive. But it’s also deeply entrenched. The strongest argument in favor of keeping grades around is the fact that it would take an absolutely enormous amount of infrastructural and systemic change in American education to come up with, let alone implement, something new. So much of the way we understand and approach education hinges on grading. So, even if the rebellious teen in me would probably say something like "grades are stupid and we don't need 'em," the adult in me can see the enormous practical challenges that would come with trashing the whole system.

I see a lot of comments indicating that this is detrimental to students' competition and ranking! And I'd like to ask them if education is to promote a win-at-all-cost attitude in student? What about the bigger picture? That is, we are preparing students to cooperate in their real life after graduation. Grades put them against each other and they will continue fighting in their later life. After all, we are teachers and the main purpose of teaching is to teach students to become a healthy member of their society. Psychological issued in ranking and grading students are fundamental.

I recommend using Pass/Fail in a limited situation, such as Sp. needs students with severe low abilities, for students on long term sick leaves....on the other hand, I prefer having grades as one of other tools of assessment.

I believe that we should change the grading system to pass or fail, especially at the doctoral level. I think that alleviating the letter grades will take the stress off of being obsessed with the idea of grades impacting the individual's grade point average. Less stress means being able to exert more energy towards focusing on a greater degree of quality.

Some very good insights above. Perhaps, I can add another dimension: Grades also act as signals for future employers. For example, when a student receives an A grade in a highly analytical course, the employer will know the student has well developed analytical abilities. However, if a profession requires a caring and loving personality, then the current grading system do not reflect that and that is why we have interviews. Hence, I think it depends on the context on whether we should change the current grading system. I think instead of the letter grades a pass and fail along with a short report on the candidates strengths and weaknesses is more beneficial for future employers and the students.

I see pros and cons on both sides. Regardless, in my humble opinion, it is not as simple as a pass/fail system without taking a hard look at the assessments for each degree program. Assessments that include both formative and summative evaluations to address essential educational learning and vocational learning objectives will require more detailed feedback. Therefore, a change in this system also requires reshaping the types of assessments and ensuring adequate time for written and verbal feedback. This will help outline expectations while providing equity to students.

May I respond first by asking you a question ' what will your attitude towards a course that you are taking if the grading scale is dichotomous as pass or fail?' If there are no degree of passes or failure, students will only put in as much efforts just to make them pass. That means 1) it will encourage mediocrity.

2) Learners will put in their minimal strength. Thank you.

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The Mark's sheet should not only reflect marks or grade of student but also the quality of infrastructure of institutions, the number and quality of practical training hours undertaken by the institution, the rating of skills of trainer and then the quality of learning of student should be displayed on a scale of 0-10.

Letter grades are deeply ingrained in the educational system. From elementary school all the way through graduate school, students are evaluated using a letter grade scale, or its closest relation, the grade point average. In a lot of ways, grades offer a very simple solution to the very complex challenge of assessing student aptitude, performance, and improvement. But are letter grades the best we can do? And does it even make sense to assign letter grades at the college level or beyond? We consider the pros and cons of eliminating the grading system in college and these are concerns....

No!!! That's great for, let's say a work out class, but I'm applying to Law School. It's competitive enough with GPA's. How bad would you feel to apply yourself everyday for 4 years in the hopes of getting accepted only to get beat out by a slacker who just managed to scathe by with a PASS grade. NO THANKS!!!

Grading is very important, I am in support of pass/fail to know the strength and weaknesses the students

Pass fail will not show strengths and weaknesses because their is not any type of sample to base what your strong or weak in. Its simply yes, you passed, or no, you didn't

Absolutely no due to the fact that the level of understanding of the subject matter by 2 pupils or students can never be the same. Pass and fail would never show how knowledgeable a student has acquired of a particular curriculum or subject.

In my opinion i always support the point system cause this way the competitive side of the learner is triggered and encourage them to strive more because their effort is compesated and measured by the progress of their numerical grade

I don't think so, because among the pass/failers there could be many grades of learning.

No. To me, the grading policy helps to set a better assesment for student’s proficiency.