Ungrading: Exploring a New CurricuLUM

Questionnaire

Results

I was able to receive responses about Ungrading from about 20 participants, all providing me with a look into their experiences throughout their time in school, their understanding of grading and Ungrading, and some suggestions and ideas as to what parts of the education system that can be improved. started the questionnaire with questions about traditional grading before transitioning to Ungrading.

For some added context, the participants were all either current students doing their Master degree, no longer in school, and/or educators themselves. I had structured it this way to ease participants into the topic, all while educating them about the Ungrading approach through the questions. I wanted to put them in the right headspace to answer some open-ended questions about Ungrading, which would provide me with the valuable insights.

In terms of the results, I had asked participants questions about their experiences in school with grading and their preferences regarding grading. The four most interesting results were those with the highest percentage of participants who answered the same way. These results aligned with existing literature on grading and ungrading (McMorran et al., 2017), where participants agreed that grades caused some level of stress or anxiety. Additionally, the results reflected concerns found in existing literature regarding student agency with the implementation of ungrading (Koehler & Meech, 2021). Participants also showed a willingness to try ungrading, recognizing that it could allow them to take risks and explore new ideas (McMorran et al., 2017). Under the right circumstances, they indicated they would choose to have ungrading in their classrooms with specific criteria in place.

The questionnaire revealed that participants agreed that traditional grading plays a large role in their motivation, stating that grades strongly influenced their agency to learn, alongside personal interest and career relevance as additional motivators. Approximately 65% of participants believed that their grades directly correlated with their understanding of course material, meaning good grades reflected a strong understanding and vice versa. But over 50% of participants had said that traditional grading only "sometimes" reflects their understanding of the material, and only 10% believe that it accurately "always" does. These results display a strong reliance on traditional grading, but also display its drawbacks and potential over reliance on the traditional grading approach, but we continue to rely on this system as Kjærgaard (2023) warns: "As long as grades continue to open or close doors to higher social status and careers, they will remain a core metric that influences how young adults see themselves and others."

While grades are still commonly used to track progress, participants also cited feedback from both teachers and peers, as well as self-reflection/self-assessment, as additional ways to track their progress. While only 50% of the participants were initially familiar with ungrading (potentially due to the pool of participants), many acknowledged both its challenges, such as potential confusion in implementation and reduced motivation or student agency, and its benefits.  While many had not yet experienced an ungrading environment, the majority cited potential benefits such as decreased pressure and stress, increased creativity and experimentation with their work, and a greater focus on learning and mastery of course content. These findings align with existing studies like Kjærgaard's 2017-2022 research, which cited that ungrading encourages a "love of learning" — a key element for its successful implementation.

Ungrading has multiple strategies that can be applied, but all the participants from the results, found the following three strategies most desirable for lowering academic stress and anxiety while increasing student agency: frequent, clear, and specific written comments and explanations; flexible deadlines and assignments; and a supportive, non-competitive environment. These approaches align with recommendations from Sorensen-Unruh (2024) on incorporating ungrading into a classroom setting.

Participants also agreed that ungrading encourages risk-taking and exploration in assignments, which aligns with McMorran's (2017) research. They suggested that ungrading could lead to a deeper understanding of the subject matter and motivate students to explore and learn more independently. When discussing different approaches within the ungrading system, 90% participants cited some level of feedback as a critical pillar for their potential success. However, peer feedback received mixed reactions: some found it helpful, while others preferred to avoid it due to concerns that it might be inaccurate or misaligned with evaluator expectations. While evaluator feedback was preferred and seen as more useful than peer feedback, participants emphasized that feedback needed to be clear and specific rather than just a grade value. This perspective aligns with Kohn & Saffel (2020), who argue that grades alone are an ineffective way to inform students, their parents, and other educators about student progress.

I asked participants whether they would have chosen ungrading over traditional grading during their time in school. All participants responded that they would, but only under the condition that ungrading be applied selectively. They believed ungrading would be most effective in courses within the creative realm, social sciences, humanities, ethics, or other subjects that involve more subjective concepts, similar to Kjærgaard's (2023) findings, citing the mixed results on the success of Ungrading varied from subject to subject.

The responses from my participants indicate a genuine interest in the ungrading approach and a recognition that while it is not a one-size-fits-all solution, it is adaptable to various educational contexts and offers many potential benefits. These insights also guide my understanding of what resources I should include on my website to better assist and prepare educators for incorporating ungrading into their teaching practices. The most valuable questions in addressing my research question were the open-ended ones that allowed participants to provide their own short answers:

"In your opinion, what are the potential drawbacks of ungrading that teachers should be aware of?"

"Any additional comments or suggestions on how teachers can successfully implement an ungrading approach while ensuring positive learning outcomes?"

"If you chose 'I would like the option to choose on a course-by-course basis,' what type of courses would you pick for an ungrading approach?"

Using a multiple-choice format led participants in a specific direction and lacked depth in capturing their thoughts, with the pool of participants was smaller than I had hoped, and the majority of participants all come from a similar background (95% have post secondary education). These factors might not have provided a diverse enough set of data. However, it retained participants longer and increased the likelihood of full questionnaire completion. If I were to conduct the questionnaire again, I would rely more on short-answer questions to obtain more detailed responses. Nonetheless, the mix of multiple-choice and short-answer questions in this study provided valuable insights for my project and online resource.