Article Response to-"Too smart to fail" by Joseph Holtgreive

Article Response

            In an article by Joesph Holtgreive titled Too Smart to Fail, Holtgreive talks about students focusing too much on grades. Holtgreive starts off the essay by sharing an experience he had as a professor at Northwestern University. He had a student come in asking if she could drop the class after the drop date. After some discussion, he found out that she wanted to drop the class, because she had done poorly on the midterm exam. She was expecting that the class would be easy enough, where she could get an A without effort. Holtgreive points out that although she really liked the material discussed in class, she was not willing to learn it for a bad grade. He discusses that this is becoming widespread problem, and names two potential causes. Firstly, he talks about how students who breezed their way through high school creates a “inverse relationship between grades and effort.” He states that this means that when grades exceed effort the student feels smart, while on the flip side when effort exceeds grades the student feels dumb. Holtgreive believes that this looking at the wrong outcome. On the flip side he observes that when students focus more on learning the create a relationship of more effort=more learning. This is a positive reinforcement to effort. As an example, to this Holtgreive mentions another story of a student seeking to be in graduate school. The student focused too much on grades and his performance was suffering, after they talked the student focused more on learning. The focus created more joy and less stress in his life. Once he noticed that he could make it in to graduate school again—the student began to focus on grades once again causing stress to rise and his grades to fall. Holtgreive believes that focusing on learning in school creates excitement and joy.

            I think that this article does a fantastic job at showing academically the problems with grades. The personal experience that Holtgreive has with being a professor gives him credibility in addressing this subject. Additionally, Holtgreive gives some stories that we have all experienced or seen as we have attended college. The length of the paper, and the intriguing stories seems like Holtgreive is trying to address the students with the essay and not educators. I believe that he is trying to educate students on the problems with focusing too much on grades. Good professors seem to always be focusing on helping students to become life-long learners, which I believe is the goal of this article. Although, he points out some significant problems that I have seen in my college experience, he does not suggest solutions. It seems like in the world today, we have a lot of critics, but not a lot of solutions. I desire to show in this response, how mastery-based learning can solve a lot of the problems that were shown in this essay.

            Mastery based learning can solve the problems of focusing too much on grades. This problem was addressed by Holtgreive when he talked about the potential graduate student. The student was stressed out about getting into graduate school after his mediocre performance. After Holtgreive and him addressed the problem and he focused more on learning he felt “more excited about learning than he ever had in college.” The problem was the this helped him achieve better grades, and thus restarted the focusing on grades cycle. This problem would be solved by mastery based learning. The whole goal of mastery learning is to help students to focus more on learning, rather than grades. The students still would need to pass certain objectives for the course, but would be free to dig into the subjects they loved about the course. I believe that mastery learning would achieve the same result mentioned in the story of the pre-graduate student who focused more on learning. This is proven by a study from the National University of Singapore, who implemented a mastery-based learning hybrid into the first year of their student’s college experience. One of the major strengths mentioned by the students who participated in the study was reduced stress. (McMorran) This is proof that mastery learning can help students feel less stressed in college.

            Furthermore, mastery based learning can solve the problem of students dropping hard classes after they get a bad grade. The first problem that was addressed by Holtgreive was the story of the student coming to him asking to drop the class, because of a mid-term exam grade. This is a major problem in college that I have seen as well. Many students are so afraid of getting a bad grade in a class, that when they struggle to grasp a concept or struggle on a test they run away from the challenge. The problem is that it is an easy trap to get trapped in with the current grading system. Grades affect your future job opportunities, scholarships, parent’s happiness, self-worth, GPA, and many other things. The pressure placed on students in college is enormous, it’s no wonder that many students seek to find the effortless way out. The frustrating and confusing thing for Holtgreive was this student enjoyed the class discussions and reading materials. Mastery-based learning can solve this problem by allowing students to take risks in their education. In the study about the University of Singapore freshman, another major strength with the mastery-based learning curriculum was that students felt like they can take more risks. (McMorran) Why should students feel that like they have to do one thing? Often the way we are successful in life is by taking risks, and growing outside of our current comfort zone. The grading system right now does not allow for as much creativity as it should. Mastery based learning would provide an effective avenue for helping students enjoy even the hard classes.

            Many critics of mastery-based learning may say that students would work less, and consequently learn less without grades. This a valid concern, the study in Singapore showed that this was a concern among the college freshman. They wondered if it had created bad study habits in these college freshmen. But, what the critics don’t realize is that the students would still be required to learn the materials to pass the objectives of the course. A professor does not have to be easy in allowing them to pass the objectives as well. A major piece of mastery-based learning is that you need to practice, practice, practice until you finally are able to master a subject. Mastery learning is a huge part of our life already, think of sports, instruments, goals, spiritual achievements or any other major part of our life. What contributes to individuals working hard in their hobbies? Do you get a grade in sports? I believe that mastery learning is a valid solution that would cause the students to work harder to achieve their goals.

In conclusion, Holtgreive provided us the opportunity to think of solutions to the problems that he showed in his essay. Mastery learning is a strong candidate to solving the problems that he mentioned. If we continue to ignore the warnings of teachers and professors, students will continue to endure the challenges they experience. Winston Churchill once said “Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. Mastery learning can help us to not repeat the same mistakes that students have struggled to overcome.

 Holtgreive, Joseph . “Inside Higher Ed.” Students focus too much on grades to the detriment of learning (Essay), Inside higher ed, 16 Aug. 2016, www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/08/16/students-focus-too-much-grades-detriment-learning-essay. Accessed 26 July 2017.

McMorran, Chris, et al. "Assessment and Learning without Grades? Motivations and Concerns with Implementing Gradeless Learning in Higher Education." Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, vol. 42, no. 3, Apr. 2017, pp. 361-377. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/02602938.2015.1114584.