Teachers and Students’ Meaning and View on Grades

Abstract

The misunderstandings, conflicts, and frustrations that surround student-teacher communication about grades arise from the disparity between their basic assumptions about what grades mean and how they are derived. Anchored on the perspective of Goulden and Griffin (1997), this causal-comparative study tried to assess students’ and teachers’ perspective on the meaning of grades, and test the hypothesis that conflict on the meaning of grades ceased to subsist in the minds of students and teachers. A total of 39 teachers and 170 students responded the standardized questionnaire and revealed their satisfying experiences of constant conversation about grades. Both even revealed that this conversation sometimes leads to the changing of grades. Further analysis, however, revealed that despite students and teachers’ agreements on some aspects on the meaning of grades, a statistically significant difference between their views were observed whenever grades are understood as information; its impact to students; the process of getting it; and its validity as a measure of mastery of course content. Being able to reject the hypothesis, it is recommended that aside from an intense explanation on the process and the validity of grades, the use of various, authentic, and appropriate tools in evaluating students’ complex performance must be employed. Keywords - Information, Impact, Process, validity, Grade Communication, Evaluation, Assessment