In this blog post, we will look at how red grading affects students’ emotions and learning, and the positive effects of alternative colors.
When you were in elementary school, you probably had a red pencil-marked test to take home with you on the day of a test. Those who did well on the test would be excited, while those who did not would be worried. It was a very familiar situation to make fun of a friend by saying that a red rain would fall if they made a lot of mistakes. In this way, we were very familiar with grading in red. In Korea, we even made a workbook called a red pen based on this.
However, some people do not use red when grading. In my case, I used a purple ballpoint pen to grade, and in the case of others, they often chose their own color preference to grade. When I asked them why they liked this color, some said they just liked it, but many said they didn’t like the color red. So why don’t people like the color red? Maybe it’s not just a matter of preference, but of the emotional response that the color evokes.
People feel different emotions when they perceive each color. Research on this has been going on for a very long time, and it is being applied to psychotherapy, architectural design, and marketing strategies. For example, in mental hospitals, walls are painted in soothing colors such as white and green to help patients relax, and green and purple are used in artworks to emphasize strangeness. As such, color is closely related to our psychology, and research on what emotions a particular color evokes is still actively ongoing.
The emotions that red brings include positive effects such as passion, bravery, and excitement, but there are also negative effects such as inferiority, aggression, gloom, and dissatisfaction. The problem is the emotions that people feel when they grade test papers in red. Although there may be differences from person to person, red can be hurtful when you take a test and are told that you have made an error. I think this is why people use colors other than red to grade test papers.
In fact, Professor Richard Duke of the University of Colorado gave the same comments to essays, but in different colors. Students who wrote comments in red received harsher evaluations and were thought to have less of a bond with their professors. This is also the case for adult college students, but the feeling is even stronger for young children, who are at the height of their sensitivity. Therefore, a health authority in Australia actually submitted a bill to ban the grading of red test papers, saying that it could harm students’ mental health.
So, is grading red test papers really a bad thing? Is it right to oppose the negative effects of red and suggest a new color? I don’t think so. Red is not just a color that points out errors. If a child who is not good at studying receives a test paper full of wrong answers, it may hurt him or her. But what would a student who is good at studying feel if they received a test paper full of red circles? They would feel a sense of accomplishment and confidence. It is one-sided to ignore the positive effects of red and focus only on the negative effects.
Red can sufficiently evoke emotions such as passion and love, which can clearly motivate study or tests. If you receive a red comment full of enthusiasm from your teacher, the motivation will be indescribable. It is a bit unfortunate that the debate focuses only on the negative effects of grading red test papers. What we should focus on is the burden of the test itself or its results, not the red color that marks the results.
Students are always on the exam stage, such as the internal exam, the college entrance exam, the employment examination, and the interview, and they feel burdened every time. That is why red, which can relieve the burden by showing passion, interest, and love, sometimes becomes red, which is aggressive and criticizes. From the student’s point of view, it is more important than anything else to correct the wrong and distorted knowledge and to receive the correct knowledge. The role of the educator is also important in this process. The educator can be a teacher or professor, or it can be the role of the student who is studying on his or her own.
What students need is not red as a color that is associated with hurt or inferiority, but red as a color of love, passion, and interest. Red certainly has more positive effects than hurt and criticism. Carefully written red comments and circles will give hope and relieve the pressure of students who are on the exam stage. How about giving students, who are always under stress from exams and studying, red circles full of passion and love instead of red wrong answers full of aggression and dissatisfaction? Such a change can be a great motivator for students and give them a new perspective on exams.
