Impact of Removing Grades on Student Motivation

Understanding Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation refers to behavior that is driven by external rewards such as money, fame, grades, and praise. As there are no longer going to be grades under the new system, if most of the students are progressing adequately, the school could offer other extrinsic incentives, such as free school lunches or more frequent dances. For some students, this change will be positive; for others, it will be negative.

The other option is that students must now work for intrinsic reasons—that is, for personal reasons or to satisfy oneself. For example, a student might complete extra worksheets because they want to fully understand the subject, not because they simply want to pass the class. Since intrinsically motivated students would be rewarded under the new school system, they would naturally do better than students who are no longer motivated by grades.

Arousal Theory and the Yerkes-Dodson Law

The Yerkes-Dodson Law describes an empirical relationship between arousal and performance. Performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point. This is represented by an inverted U-shaped graph. The optimal level of arousal is a moderate level. High arousal leads to better performance on simple tasks, although it depends on the individual.

Example: Removing the anxiety of achieving good grades may reduce the arousal level from high to moderate. Students will be more relaxed, and this will help their performance.

Learned Helplessness in Education

Learned Helplessness is a psychological state where a human or animal becomes conditioned to believe that a situation is unchangeable or inescapable. For example, rats forced to swim without an escape stop trying to escape. Students may become helpless if grades are removed because they depend on grades for feedback; consequently, they may stop studying.

The Power of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy is a prediction that becomes true simply because it was predicted. For example, if Ann believes she is a bad student, she stops studying and subsequently receives poor scores on her tests. Without grades, students would stop seeing themselves as "good" or "bad" based on a number. Students who previously had low grades would no longer see themselves as "bad students" and would therefore start trying harder, as if they were "good students."