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How are you, my cousin Ally? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I feel bad that we sort of lost touch. Isn\u2019t your lovely Sofia about to <\/span><\/span>start<\/span><\/span> school, just like my <\/span><\/span>daughter<\/span><\/span>? <\/span><\/span>The l<\/span><\/span>ast time we spoke, you were asking me about the education system in Canada. Well, a lot has changed since 1997 when I moved here. Can you believe it\u2019s been 33 years? Remember, how I used to copy your homework <\/span><\/span>in a <\/span><\/span>c<\/span><\/span>hemistry class because I hated it too much to study, but still wanted to get a good grade to show my dad because he was a chemical engineer? <\/span><\/span>Well, in Canada c<\/span><\/span>hemistry is no longer a mandatory class in high school! <\/span><\/span>The most interesting development is that <\/span><\/span>the grading system has been eliminated from <\/span><\/span>about half of <\/span><\/span>high schools. It started with a pilot project in 2013 <\/span><\/span>(Nixon, 2017) and the concept was gradually accepted by <\/span><\/span>many <\/span><\/span>others. <\/span><\/span>At the moment, a parent can choose between two different approaches. You<\/span><\/span> are probably wondering <\/span><\/span>how this divide came to be<\/span><\/span>. Well, there are several reasons <\/span><\/span>for<\/span><\/span> it. <\/span><\/span>One of the main <\/span><\/span>anti-grading <\/span><\/span>arguments<\/span><\/span> is <\/span><\/span>that<\/span><\/span> grades do not motivate students <\/span><\/span>to learn<\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>because <\/span><\/span>learning is about intrinsic motivation while <\/span><\/span>grades act as<\/span><\/span> extrinsic motivation <\/span><\/span>(Blum, 2016, p.96). The domination of extrinsic motivation is claimed by Blum to have a negative effect because \u201cextrinsically motivated workers act in accordance with a \u201cminimax\u201d strategy: They attempt to perform the bare minimum of work sufficient for the achievement of maximal rewards.\u201d<\/span>(Kruglanski et al., 1977, p.141). At the same time, grades<\/span><\/span><\/span> do not <\/span><\/span><\/span>provide a proper<\/span><\/span><\/span> understanding of <\/span><\/span><\/span>student\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/span>s knowledge and abilities because<\/span><\/span><\/span> they assume <\/span><\/span><\/span>the<\/span><\/span><\/span> uniformity of input, process and output, although every student has a different life and academic experience <\/span><\/span><\/span>(Blum, 2017). Moreover,<\/span><\/span><\/span> 56 % of students<\/span><\/span><\/span> reported being<\/span><\/span><\/span> stressed about grades <\/span><\/span><\/span>(American College Health Association, 2013)<\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n While my personal experience confirms that the grading system is flawed as described, I wanted to explore the other side of the argument and find out why the grading system persists and is still acceptable among students and parents. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Diseth et al., (2020) claim<\/span><\/span><\/span> that \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>that there is no necessary contradiction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span>(p. <\/span><\/span><\/span>972<\/span><\/span><\/span>)<\/span><\/span><\/span> and argue that the relationship between them and learning is more complex than once thought. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Furthermore, <\/span><\/span><\/span>C<\/span><\/span><\/span>ovington and Mueller <\/span><\/span><\/span>(2001)<\/span><\/span><\/span> claim<\/span><\/span><\/span> that every <\/span><\/span><\/span>student<\/span><\/span><\/span> differs in what motivates them <\/span><\/span><\/span>depending on their personality traits, some are driven by intrinsic motivation while others are more motivated by extrinsic motivation<\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps,<\/span><\/span><\/span> there is a place for each approach within a system. <\/span><\/span><\/span>If one approach doesn\u2019t work for my son, it\u2019s good to know that I can transfer him to a school relying on a different approach. It\u2019s also interesting how the increase in <\/span><\/span><\/span>the <\/span><\/span><\/span>use of Artificial Intelligence(AI) is affecting both systems. After <\/span><\/span><\/span>Chui et al.(2020) were able to demonstrate that they could predict <\/span><\/span><\/span>with a 90+% accuracy <\/span><\/span><\/span>at-risk student via a machine learning algorithm, the traditional grading educational system <\/span><\/span><\/span>(TGES)<\/span><\/span><\/span> has started using AI to identify at-risk <\/span><\/span><\/span>students so that they could be better supported. The eliminated grading educational system (EGES) could not take advantage of these learning algorithms because <\/span><\/span><\/span>they<\/span><\/span><\/span> heavily relied on grades. As a result, TGES has a lower drop-out rate and is considered a safer choice <\/span><\/span><\/span>by parents who are worried about their kids\u2019 performance. It has a reputation <\/span><\/span><\/span>for<\/span><\/span><\/span> producing well-rounded <\/span><\/span><\/span>graduates<\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/span>A<\/span><\/span><\/span>t the same time, EGES started using AI to identify gifted students. It all <\/span><\/span><\/span>began<\/span><\/span><\/span> after <\/span><\/span><\/span>Hodges & Mohan (2019) claimed that <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cWhere machine learning can be best utilized by researchers and educators is in classification tasks using nonlinear indicators. An example of a nonlinear indicator is a student academic product like a poem\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span>