Anders Jönsson, professor of didactics at Kristianstad University, has researched how grades affect students.
He sees both advantages and disadvantages:
- The grades are a signal that tells you where you are on a scale.
There are students who can turn that signal into a strategy for learning and it is often students who basically have good grades, he says.
Opposite effect
When it comes to students with lower grades, the system instead has the opposite effect and gives a feeling of powerlessness, he says.
- The students who receive low grades for a longer period of time instead put down their involvement in school, either because they do not think it is worthwhile or because they do not want to avoid further failures.
Hear more about how grades can negatively affect students in the video above.