The Principles of Grading for Growth

Robert Talbert shares about the principles of grading for growth on episode 510 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

In one shot, she can’t get a B in the class. And I sat there and just watched her sense of self worth and her excitement in the class just decay away right before my eyes.
-Robert Talbert

When you look at grades as we often use them in a traditional setting, they are much of what we do is under the guise of object what we think is objectivity.
-Robert Talbert

The biggest thing that’s broken about grades is that traditional grading is completely disconnected from the notion of a feedback loop.
-Robert Talbert

Give helpful feedback that doesn’t humiliate the student, affirms their basic dignity as a human being, and highlights what went well. Helpful feedback also highlights what could use some work and invites students to collaborate with you to make it better.
-Robert Talbert

Reattempts without penalty, that’s the closing of the feedback loop.
-Robert Talbert

Points used for grades are a judgment call that results in a label.
-Robert Talbert

• Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices that Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education, by David Clark & Robert Talbert
• Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (Third Edition), Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen
• Dignity: Its Essential Role in Resolving Conflict, by Donna Hicks
• Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People, by Donna Hicks
• The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain, by Annie Murphy Paul
• Robert Talbert’s Sabbatical in Industry with Steelcase
• The 12-week plan for building courses, by Robert Talbert