a couple of years ago while I was doing
an exercise with some of my students
there was an identity and social role
social roles and one of the students
there asked me Peter do you actually
know how important grades are to me to
us she said and she continued I think
about grades all the time I think about
grades when I’m at home doing my
homework while I’m writing my
assignments while I go to school while
I’m in class great in the back of my
mind all time one of the other students
was in that group said I totally agree
with that and in some way I think the
student said I think that grades there
sometimes there’s somehow determined how
I behave in school what I do what I say
what I don’t say what I write what I
don’t write 24/7 my behavior is
determined by grades of course I know
that great importance to students after
all they have to use them afterwards but
it was quite shocking for me that grades
had become such a dominant it was so
influential on the students behavior and
I was also sad because I’d always
thought of myself as the teacher who was
able to present a learning room in where
there were a lot of fun a lot of create
creativeness a lot of place for
experimentals
but I had to realize I had to recognize
that this was certainly not the case
because the student they told me that I
also was very keen on their performances
and giving them great and I in somehow
were more focused on the higher grades
learned a little great now I’m here
today to share with you my idea that
we need to focus on learning and not
great
where’s grades of these you could say
measurement says the way we measure
students in in certain criterias in a
specific curriculum now learning is
something different because learning and
learning processes is a rule where the
student is allowed to be creative it’s
allowed to be experimental it’s allowed
to make mistakes to even fail but along
the way they will and somehow be able to
manage the challenges now I’m not
opposed to great as such but I am really
opposed to the way that we have allowed
grades to penetrate and colonize the way
we educate people and in the way the
students are impacted by it and in my
talk today I will focus on three things
I will focus on why we see this
phenomenon of the great impact of great
and young students life and I will also
look into some of the consequences and
finally I will give you just a short
presentation of some of the results that
we have had with this project free of
grades Instagram parenting and you’ve
probably seen that a lot back in June
because Instagram parenting that is
parents standing with their children and
praising them for their great academic
achievements and they post a picture and
they’re writing something like once
again Cal nailed it at the green table
12
of course we doesn’t often hear Peter
did a fine job he just made it through
high school I’m so proud of him what a
man he has become we don’t hear that but
we hear a call and his grade of 12 now
there’s nothing wrong being a proud
parent we should all be proud parents
but we just need to understand that this
pressure that the social surroundings
create for the young student and the
pressure that the young student creates
for him or herself means that identity
see from high school students
perspective is often I understand myself
because I am my grades going to my
everyday life one of my student once
told me that she was doing she was
training because she had to do very good
in athletics now my student was anxious
because she knew that she had to do very
well in three different disciplines
running long jump high jump and she was
very good in both running and long term
so that was not the problem but the
problem of course was the third one
hi John she was not good in that she
really just she was really bad here now
she told me that she sat down and she
calculated okay what to do
got the best opportunity to have a
higher grade and then she said then she
somehow reason her way to that okay the
day we run I come the day we jump long
long term I will come and the day we are
to do the high jump I will call in sick
now I’m a responsible student and my
teachers they will probably think of me
as one who actually was ill I cannot be
certain of that but I would do that so
my behavior will be termined for that
because I need that great for later in
my life now you can probably imagine
that this create a lot of stress a lot
of pressure because I could tell you
hundreds of these doors and now stress
is something that we don’t like in
education and especially not in a
learning room because stress reduces the
ability to learn quite dramatically
looking out on studies on a national
basis we know that around fifty percent
of all high school students I stressed
up as the top twenty percent of the most
stress in the Danish workforce now to
bring in bring that in here in this room
we could say that on the two sides over
here all of you sitting over there you
will probably find yourself in a
situation where your darkness would be
pretty worried because you would be at
risk of developing psychiatric disorders
such as severe depressions eating
disorders or even as
xiety so so this is of course a huge
problem for us so we need to change that
and what I suggest and what we have
tried to do is in some way to establish
a different learning culture and to
address that we need to focus on
learning and reduce the amount of grades
and one thing we have tried to work on
is this what we call an ideal speed
situation it sounds very interesting but
it’s a it’s it’s not complex it’s very
simple it’s just you and a teacher
sitting down and try to talk on how to
learn a subject how to learn a course
and try to establish a trusting relation
and the teacher so that this student
will actually tell the teacher how they
think they progress in a course in a
subject what questions they very much
would like to ask but are too afraid of
asking in other places a place our
situation where you can be creative
where there’s room for doing mistakes
where there’s room for trying something
into the unknown which is seldom in our
educational system a different thing we
try to establish was this free and open
mind and learning culture among the
students if you in this room just try to
imagine or remember how it was like to
sit in a classroom many years ago afraid
of saying something because you just you
just knew that everyone around you they
were on the edge of the chair to either
laugh of you if you said something wrong
or to eat you alive if you made a
mistake now even though this is often
not the case it is a tremendous social
Dominator in the class in the classroom
so we have to change that and the way we
try to change that was by teaching the
teachers actually to praise to recognize
but also to acknowledge all the academic
commitments and all the work and
discipline the student
put in to their school work but also to
when they were discussing in class when
they were saying something where they
were uncertain when they were doing
mistakes whether they were trying to be
experimental even though we was quite
wrong so by opening up the learning room
we actually tried to create a more free
and a more safe haven for these students
are we looking in if we look to some of
the results from our project and I think
we answer something here we saw that the
students in this class had the highest
well-being and was the most motivated
among their fellow students and their
group there was also a very low stress
level among these students interesting
was also that there was a low absence
these students they actually came into
school they liked coming into school and
that is of course good because when you
have your students in your classroom you
can probably learn them something and
last but not least the students in this
group they did absolute best at the test
and at the exams in the end of the
school year now this is my conviction
that we need to strengthen our focus on
learning in our educational institutions
system and we need to reduce the amount
and the impact of grades on young
students life because it actually have a
too great influence on their behavior
and I think that we need to do it
because it will help the young student
to progress to both academically but
also personal to develop to be more
certain of themselves even in places
where they are uncertain but I also
think that from a society point of view
we will benefit far more if we in our
educational system actually educate
young people with self-esteem with a
belief in themselves
with an ability to embrace uncertainty
when they meet because uncertainty is a
natural condition of life and they
actually need to embrace this
uncertainty because we do not need
people only to reproduce what we already
know we need them to go out there and
meet the challenges where there is no
certain there is no definition there’s
no endpoint now one of my students the
students that just mentioned early on
she told me she was part of the project
here and she told me just before the
summer holidays that she was she just
did an interview with that journalist
and the journalist wanted to hear what
the student had experienced throughout
the project and while the student was
answering the questions from that the
journalists put forward the student
realized that something had really
changed for her early on she was only
focused on performance on grades and now
she could hear herself and understand
herself that he/she had actually made a
shift to watch learning and towards
mastering coping and what she could that
she suddenly realized that was because
you could hear synthesis that she was
saying she would just hear yourself
saying now I feel that over the last few
years I have been allowing myself to do
something which I didn’t do before
I now do mistakes and now allow myself
to stand in front of my classmates
maybe it’s embarrassing but I allow
myself to do it I try to do it and I
feel strengthened by it
I actually feel I’m better able today to
embrace things I do not know the outcome
of now I think those reflections by the
student extremely important for us to
remember and they are important for me
to share with you because I really think
that we need to break out of this iron
cage of rationality and allow from far
more uncertainty in our educational
thank you
[Applause]
an exercise with some of my students
there was an identity and social role
social roles and one of the students
there asked me Peter do you actually
know how important grades are to me to
us she said and she continued I think
about grades all the time I think about
grades when I’m at home doing my
homework while I’m writing my
assignments while I go to school while
I’m in class great in the back of my
mind all time one of the other students
was in that group said I totally agree
with that and in some way I think the
student said I think that grades there
sometimes there’s somehow determined how
I behave in school what I do what I say
what I don’t say what I write what I
don’t write 24/7 my behavior is
determined by grades of course I know
that great importance to students after
all they have to use them afterwards but
it was quite shocking for me that grades
had become such a dominant it was so
influential on the students behavior and
I was also sad because I’d always
thought of myself as the teacher who was
able to present a learning room in where
there were a lot of fun a lot of create
creativeness a lot of place for
experimentals
but I had to realize I had to recognize
that this was certainly not the case
because the student they told me that I
also was very keen on their performances
and giving them great and I in somehow
were more focused on the higher grades
learned a little great now I’m here
today to share with you my idea that
we need to focus on learning and not
great
where’s grades of these you could say
measurement says the way we measure
students in in certain criterias in a
specific curriculum now learning is
something different because learning and
learning processes is a rule where the
student is allowed to be creative it’s
allowed to be experimental it’s allowed
to make mistakes to even fail but along
the way they will and somehow be able to
manage the challenges now I’m not
opposed to great as such but I am really
opposed to the way that we have allowed
grades to penetrate and colonize the way
we educate people and in the way the
students are impacted by it and in my
talk today I will focus on three things
I will focus on why we see this
phenomenon of the great impact of great
and young students life and I will also
look into some of the consequences and
finally I will give you just a short
presentation of some of the results that
we have had with this project free of
grades Instagram parenting and you’ve
probably seen that a lot back in June
because Instagram parenting that is
parents standing with their children and
praising them for their great academic
achievements and they post a picture and
they’re writing something like once
again Cal nailed it at the green table
12
of course we doesn’t often hear Peter
did a fine job he just made it through
high school I’m so proud of him what a
man he has become we don’t hear that but
we hear a call and his grade of 12 now
there’s nothing wrong being a proud
parent we should all be proud parents
but we just need to understand that this
pressure that the social surroundings
create for the young student and the
pressure that the young student creates
for him or herself means that identity
see from high school students
perspective is often I understand myself
because I am my grades going to my
everyday life one of my student once
told me that she was doing she was
training because she had to do very good
in athletics now my student was anxious
because she knew that she had to do very
well in three different disciplines
running long jump high jump and she was
very good in both running and long term
so that was not the problem but the
problem of course was the third one
hi John she was not good in that she
really just she was really bad here now
she told me that she sat down and she
calculated okay what to do
got the best opportunity to have a
higher grade and then she said then she
somehow reason her way to that okay the
day we run I come the day we jump long
long term I will come and the day we are
to do the high jump I will call in sick
now I’m a responsible student and my
teachers they will probably think of me
as one who actually was ill I cannot be
certain of that but I would do that so
my behavior will be termined for that
because I need that great for later in
my life now you can probably imagine
that this create a lot of stress a lot
of pressure because I could tell you
hundreds of these doors and now stress
is something that we don’t like in
education and especially not in a
learning room because stress reduces the
ability to learn quite dramatically
looking out on studies on a national
basis we know that around fifty percent
of all high school students I stressed
up as the top twenty percent of the most
stress in the Danish workforce now to
bring in bring that in here in this room
we could say that on the two sides over
here all of you sitting over there you
will probably find yourself in a
situation where your darkness would be
pretty worried because you would be at
risk of developing psychiatric disorders
such as severe depressions eating
disorders or even as
xiety so so this is of course a huge
problem for us so we need to change that
and what I suggest and what we have
tried to do is in some way to establish
a different learning culture and to
address that we need to focus on
learning and reduce the amount of grades
and one thing we have tried to work on
is this what we call an ideal speed
situation it sounds very interesting but
it’s a it’s it’s not complex it’s very
simple it’s just you and a teacher
sitting down and try to talk on how to
learn a subject how to learn a course
and try to establish a trusting relation
and the teacher so that this student
will actually tell the teacher how they
think they progress in a course in a
subject what questions they very much
would like to ask but are too afraid of
asking in other places a place our
situation where you can be creative
where there’s room for doing mistakes
where there’s room for trying something
into the unknown which is seldom in our
educational system a different thing we
try to establish was this free and open
mind and learning culture among the
students if you in this room just try to
imagine or remember how it was like to
sit in a classroom many years ago afraid
of saying something because you just you
just knew that everyone around you they
were on the edge of the chair to either
laugh of you if you said something wrong
or to eat you alive if you made a
mistake now even though this is often
not the case it is a tremendous social
Dominator in the class in the classroom
so we have to change that and the way we
try to change that was by teaching the
teachers actually to praise to recognize
but also to acknowledge all the academic
commitments and all the work and
discipline the student
put in to their school work but also to
when they were discussing in class when
they were saying something where they
were uncertain when they were doing
mistakes whether they were trying to be
experimental even though we was quite
wrong so by opening up the learning room
we actually tried to create a more free
and a more safe haven for these students
are we looking in if we look to some of
the results from our project and I think
we answer something here we saw that the
students in this class had the highest
well-being and was the most motivated
among their fellow students and their
group there was also a very low stress
level among these students interesting
was also that there was a low absence
these students they actually came into
school they liked coming into school and
that is of course good because when you
have your students in your classroom you
can probably learn them something and
last but not least the students in this
group they did absolute best at the test
and at the exams in the end of the
school year now this is my conviction
that we need to strengthen our focus on
learning in our educational institutions
system and we need to reduce the amount
and the impact of grades on young
students life because it actually have a
too great influence on their behavior
and I think that we need to do it
because it will help the young student
to progress to both academically but
also personal to develop to be more
certain of themselves even in places
where they are uncertain but I also
think that from a society point of view
we will benefit far more if we in our
educational system actually educate
young people with self-esteem with a
belief in themselves
with an ability to embrace uncertainty
when they meet because uncertainty is a
natural condition of life and they
actually need to embrace this
uncertainty because we do not need
people only to reproduce what we already
know we need them to go out there and
meet the challenges where there is no
certain there is no definition there’s
no endpoint now one of my students the
students that just mentioned early on
she told me she was part of the project
here and she told me just before the
summer holidays that she was she just
did an interview with that journalist
and the journalist wanted to hear what
the student had experienced throughout
the project and while the student was
answering the questions from that the
journalists put forward the student
realized that something had really
changed for her early on she was only
focused on performance on grades and now
she could hear herself and understand
herself that he/she had actually made a
shift to watch learning and towards
mastering coping and what she could that
she suddenly realized that was because
you could hear synthesis that she was
saying she would just hear yourself
saying now I feel that over the last few
years I have been allowing myself to do
something which I didn’t do before
I now do mistakes and now allow myself
to stand in front of my classmates
maybe it’s embarrassing but I allow
myself to do it I try to do it and I
feel strengthened by it
I actually feel I’m better able today to
embrace things I do not know the outcome
of now I think those reflections by the
student extremely important for us to
remember and they are important for me
to share with you because I really think
that we need to break out of this iron
cage of rationality and allow from far
more uncertainty in our educational
thank you
[Applause]
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