In today’s current environment, many students feel at ease as their grades remain private to the rest of their peers.
However, the feeling of content over having their grades remain hidden is a pathway to these students not reaching their full potential. If professors were able to display and discuss their grades, I’d guarantee that students would perform at a higher rate, and here’s a few reasons as to why.
The first reason I’ll give is quite simply that some students don’t actually know all of their grades at all until it’s too late. Personally, I have had professors who won’t disclose your grade unless you were to meet with them in their office hours, and not knowing if you’re safely at an A or if you’re struggling to keep up is a serious dilemma we face.
If professors could display all the students grades in public, many students would know where they stand and what to do in order to achieve their desired grade.
Secondly, knowing the grades of other students can be of great use to a student looking for somebody to study with. In the Fall semester, I met with somebody I knew who was passing my Psychology course with flying colors, and I prepared my final exam prep with him. With the assistance he gave me, I was able to hold onto the grade I needed in the class when I thought all hope was lost.
Now while I knew who were the hardest working students in my class, a lot of students who aren’t as active as I was may not have the same luxury. Knowing the grades of the students who are excelling can help out those who are in need of assistance, which brings me into my next point.
Students who aren’t doing well in the class can either approach students who are doing well, or can be approached by those same students. Nobody wants to see their fellow classmates fail the course as we’re all in this together, so students will come together to help one another. This is made especially easy if the professor were to display the grades of those students in class.
Lastly, to the students who would feel their privacy being breached, they need to understand that the grade they’re given is because of them. A student who is failing the course is most likely to blame for failing the course, so if they are to feel upset with everyone knowing they’re not doing well, they should also feel upset with themselves.
This can also work as a motivation for those students as no one wants to be seen as doing poorly, so the next time the grades are displayed, they want to see themselves at a higher grade.
