Grade-focused interactions in higher education: has the pursuit for good grades replaced learning?

Undergraduate science students face immense pressure, both internally and externally, to achieve certain grades. Grade-focused interactions between students and instructors have anecdotally been reported to be increasing. However, no empirical study has yet evaluated students' grade perceptions or the prevalence of these interactions. If we want to change students' grade fixation, we first need to understand it. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the prevalence of and factors that contribute to students' grade-focused interactions. Using a mixed-methods approach via surveys and a quasi-experimental intervention with focus groups and audio recordings of student-instructor interactions, we found that students' perceptions of grades are relatively fixed. Furthermore, although >25% of our respondents reported negotiating a grade, there were no significant perceptual differences or academic values held between students who self-reported engaging in grade-focused interactions and those who did not. Our findings suggest that unless institutional and professional program requirements change, the pressure faced by students and their preoccupation with grades will not change either.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Undergraduate science students face immense pressure to perform academically; this pressure may be linked to grade-focused interactions, which have been anecdotally reported among educators. This study evaluated the prevalence of and motivations underlying this behavior. One-quarter of our study participants self-reported negotiating a grade. The vast majority of respondents perceived that they lost grades (rather than earned them); an intervention to change this "grade loss" mentality failed to have any impact on students' behavior.