When it comes to helping Economics students improve, basing feedback on grades is going to take the focus off what will help them thrive.
Exam boards grade Economics essays slightly differently, but in general, are skills-based. Notably, Economics A-Level essays tend to focus on the execution of Knowledge, Application, Analysis and Evaluation skills.
Here is an example.
AQA will award 11-15 out of 25 (C) for a student that writes an essay with the overall quality of:
"Some reasonable analysis but generally unsupported evaluation that:
• focuses on issues that are relevant to the question, showing satisfactory knowledge and understanding of economic terminology, concepts and principles but some weaknesses may be present
• includes reasonable application of relevant economic principles to the given context and, where appropriate, some use of data to support the response • includes some reasonable analysis but which might not be adequately developed or becomes confused in places
• includes fairly superficial evaluation; there is likely to be some attempt to make relevant judgements but these aren't well-supported by arguments and/or data. "
(A-Level Economics, Specimen Paper 2, Page 4, accessible here)
A grade of say 14/25 communicates to a student they are probably scoring a C (subject to the exam board and grade boundaries that year). That is it's the purpose, ultimately. It's just a grade.
A more savvy student may research such past paper mark schemes and learn more about the 14/25. But then they're bombarded by a long list of general marking criteria of which they have no training to interpret accurately. Moreover, the general principles don't tell them about the specific strengths and weaknesses in their essay.
Ultimately the student can guess what their weaknesses may be: some in knowledge, only reasonable application, analysis that at times is confused or too brief, evaluation lacks insight and support.
However, students are not examiners and often don't know what this means. They could also have guessed wrong and over-focus in skills they are already okay. Students need sufficient awareness of what each of these skills means, at a weak, reasonable, good and strong level, to be able to exploit the mark-scheme fruitfully and build awareness.
A student will score between 21 and 25 for an essay (typically an A*) that in general has:
"Sound, focused analysis and well-supported evaluation that:
• is well organised, showing sound knowledge and understanding of economic terminology, concepts and principles with few, if any, errors
• includes good application of relevant economic principles to the given context and, where appropriate, good use of data to support the response
• includes well-focused analysis with clear, logical chains of reasoning
• includes supported evaluation throughout the response and in a final conclusion."
(A-Level Economics, Specimen Paper 2, Page 4, accessible here)
This higher band essay is exceptional not only because the student has demonstrated an ability to make few errors, relate to context, explain their argument step by step and evaluate with support throughout, but they also demonstrate an ability to do all of this concurrently. Excellent pieces are tremendously more difficult. The higher quality and the more consistently Knowledge, Application, Analysis and Evaluation displayed, the higher their essay will tend to score.
A further blind spot to students is the lack of awareness that some of these skills are interrelated. For example, to be able to write a logical chain of reasoning in your explanation, the student needs killer level knowledge. The student may be fantastic at writing but score markedly in the analysis skill, due to their relatively weaker knowledge jumping in. Good feedback needs to communicate what is holding back a students' essay and have an effective plan of action to see progress.
Overall, students need to build a good grasp of what skills they currently have developed and what yet needs nurturing to score better. A final grade or writing summarising the marking criteria achieved won't help much. At the very least they need to understand what Knowledge, Application, Analysis and Evaluation mean. They need to have a good awareness of what a good essay typically looks like. Finally, they need to understand how these skills link together so they can get started on a plan of action.
Therefore, providing a final grade is not usually helpful for a student to learn what they need to do to improve. A final mark is not able to communicate accurately progress on the skills required to achieve that grade. Even the grade descriptor is insufficient to give students clarity.
It is also not helpful because it takes focus away from skills-based learning which may become harmful.
A student scoring 21/25 will likely feel they did well, which is true. Typically that 84% score would be enough for an A*. Only about 7% of students in the UK score an A* for Economics. However, there is a definite downside. They are starting to believe they are doing well without knowing why. That's the danger. The reason why they are successful is unconscious to them. They have no certainty as to whether this was due to being lucky with the topic being a favourite or whether it is something they can replicate over and over.
Furthermore, they are not aware of how closethey likely are from the A. Essays scoring an A typically are very similar but very slightly weaker in evaluation or use of context. The risk of coming very close to an A is something important to communicate. Therefore, the grade is not only unhelpful but may foster feelings of misplaced security.
The same, you can say, with students repeatedly scoring 12-16/25. With no seeming progress, it is easy to see how the student can feel demotivated and helpless. Economics starts to seem out of their control. No matter their efforts or strategies, they cannot improve.
Which brings me on to my next post:
More Useful Feedback for Economics A-level Students