Reflections on the Impact of Absence of Summative Assessment on Students' Motivation and Learning

Abstract

It has been argued for many years whether assessment and grading systems make students learn better and motivate them toward learning. Grades are seen as the external agents that are taken from formative assessment which have summative value in the process of learning. The primary goal of grading is to measure students' achievement of the learning in a curriculum. These numerical signs serve as evidence about students' competence and their performance in the learning process. In some cases, getting a grade from an exam or a task not only assesses what one knows, but also enhances one's motivation for learning. Students need to see the results of their performance and the gap between the actual and desired goals in the process. Therefore, grades also help students shape their future learning goals and make them autonomous learners since they are the outcomes of formative assessment which goes together with summative assessment. This paper provides an insight into the impact of the absence of summative assessment and grades for motivation and learning in an urban English Prep school of a foundation university in Istanbul. The problem is students do not have to accomplish summative purposes of the assessment of the curriculum to enter the Proficiency exam in the second semester. In other words, they do not need to meet the requirements of the curriculum accept attending the lessons. The study sheds a light on the process and results of the absence of summative assessment and grades in one semester of the academic year. The findings of the study provide reflections and current evidence for the issue of whether this absence can have a positive or negative impact on students' motivation and learning.