There is no argument that students require motivation in order to perform in school; however, where these motivations are directed has become corrupted. In modern high schools, there is great pressure on students to receive all A’s and take vigorous courses, and as a result, getting good grades has become a bigger motivator than learning to most students.

According to the National Research Council, over 40% of students are disengaged from school due to a lack of motivation. With this many students feeling under-motivated by learning, it can’t be their fault. Ken Bain of the Harvard University Press argues that there are at least three types of learners: ones motivated by rewards, ones motivated by fear of failure, and ones motivated by learning and mastering material. With such a variety of different students in any given classroom, it must be a challenge for a teacher to entice them all with wanting to learn. With these different types of students comes another challenge. How do we determine which of them is actually learning versus simply memorizing information temporarily for a test? Good grades are not a proper indication of learning, and they are hindering students’ ability to learn at all.

Teachers play a large role in where the motivation of their students is directed. It comes down to their teaching style regardless of whether their actions are intentional or not. For example, James Marshall Crotty of Forbes reported on a study by Roland Fryer that students are more motivated when teachers reward actions that they can control “such as completing homework” over actions that they cannot “such as achieving a passing score on a test.” Additionally, Paul Barnwell of Education Weekly argues that students “are more likely to lose interest in what they’re doing” if they are pressured by parents and teachers to be motivated by grades rather than learning. When passing the class is purely based on a student’s ability to absorb the material and perform on a test, it is easy to see why they might be less interested in the topic and more focused on memorizing what they need for the test. The classroom environment created by a teacher is essential to a student’s motivation, and Barbara Gross Davis, author of Tools for Teaching, wrote some easy changes teachers can make that may help the students. One way is ensuring that the classroom is an open and positive place with affirmative feedback being given to students. Another is making sure that students both feel valued in the learning environment and that they see the value of the information they are being asked to learn and are able to see why it is important to them on a personal level. Teachers have the ability to control how their students learn, and as long as they’re open to trying new methods of teaching, they should get a positive result from students.

The importance of grades is blinding students from learning by shifting their motivation to the wrong thing. An increased effort from teachers to change their classrooms so as to enable learning instead of hindering it will be beneficial, but this problem will not be disappearing soon.