When Inquiry Leads to the Unexpected: “Ungrading” with Preservice Teachers and the Struggle With Reflection

Abstract

While the alternate assessment movement known as “ungrading” is increasingly common in K–12 classrooms, it has only recently reached higher education, and very little has been written about its use in teacher education classrooms. This article describes the organization and repercussions of one teacher educator’s classroom inquiry, through which a gradeless approach was implemented and adapted in a capstone course over four years. Given the degree of difficulty the future teachers appear to face when reflecting on their learning, the author considers their challenges in relation to changing perceptions and government expectations of how and why teachers learn, once in the field.