Some students’ favorite explanations may be on target: boring courses and teachers can sap

the dedication of any student. But complaints of this kind have been leveled at school and

teachers for generations and true or false, they are seldom accepted by parents or educators as

a legitimate reason for not studying. Rather, other features of school life and society are

contributing to the erosion of academic effort, and as well see, many are consequences of good

intentions gone awry.

We would probably all acknowledge that consistently receiving low grades could lower intrinsic

motivation to continue persevering with similar tasks, but do high grades increase motivation

One argument is that receiving high grades can satisfy our need for feeling competent and that

this can in turn increase subsequence intrinsic motivation to continue pursuing an initially

interesting task.

The opposite side of the debate would argue that even receiving high grades may decrease

intrinsic motivation due to the perceived external pressure for reward eroding our need for

autonomy. Caroline Pulfrey and Butera from the university of Lausanne, together with Celine

Darnon from Clermot University conducted the series of two experiments designed to test the

mediating role perceived task autonomy might play on the impact of grades on student

motivation.

Across the two experiments 209 students in seventh to ninth to grade in public secondary

school in Switzerland performed a language task where they were given anagrams of varying

length to solve. The experiment comprised three conditions:

(a) A standard-grade condition, where the grading system applied was harsher, resulting in

generally lower grades,

(b) A high-grade condition, where a more lenient grading system was applied, resulting in

generally higher grades for the same level of performance, and

 (c) A no-grade condition where students received no grade at all.

These three conditions provide the researchers with two contracts. In the reward contrast,

students’ self-reported level of interest in the task and students’ motivation to continue pursuing

similar task were compared in the standard-grade vs the high-grade conditions. In the autonomy

contrast these factors were compared in the graded vs non-graded conditions. Students’ level of

motivation to continue pursuing similar task was measured by the survey asking them to

indicate whether they would like to receive similar tasks to do on their own after the experiment

and how many they would like to receive. A measure autonomy was also carried out to allow the

researchers to examine the extent to which perceived task autonomy mediated the result

relating to both task interest and to motivation to continue pursuing the task.

What were the results of the studies?

 Students in the high-grade condition reported higher levels of task interest than students

in the standard-grade condition.

 Students in the no-grade condition reported higher levels of task interest than students in

the standard-grade condition

 Students in the high-grade condition expressed more continuing for the task than

students in the standard-grade condition.

 Students in the no-grade condition expressed more continuing for the task than those in

the standard-grade condition.

When the mediating variable of perceived task autonomy was taken into account, it was

revealed that task performance as indicated by a grade did indeed explain increase interest

in the task, but did not predict continuing motivation for the task. On the other hand, higher

levels of perceived task autonomy in the no-grade condition explained not only increased
interest in the task, but also increased motivation to continue with similar tasks.

What might this mean for our classrooms?

These results align with Butler’s (1998) research, which found that while high grades can

temporarily increase interest in a particular task, one the students do not expect to be

graded on similar tasks in the future, this interest may decline. Pulfrey, darnon and butera’s

research explains at least one potential reason for this.it seems that external rewards in the

form of grades may lessen perceptions of task autonomy and in so doing deduce a student’s

motivation to pursue similar task in the future. While we may all work in contexts where not

grading at all is not a possibility, it certainly makes sense for us both to minimize grades

wherever possible and find whatever ways we can to increase the sense of task autonomy

in our students.