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In recent years, Asian countries have ranked first in the PISA International Student Assessment Program. Singapore, according to the results of the 2018 study, took an honorable second place. Irina has been living here for a long time and is raising her son, a student of the local comprehensive school. What is remarkable about the approach to assessment in the country with the youngest educational system in the world? Since 1997, Singapore has been implementing a set of measures aimed at reducing the importance of examinations and grades in primary and secondary schools. The purpose of these changes is to minimize student stress from the competitiveness of the educational process. nine0005

Irina, mother of a 9-year-old son (Singapore):

“Before the sixth grade, a Singaporean teacher does not aim to grade and rank children within the class. My son simply has to turn in all the papers and projects during the academic quarter, for which the teachers are more likely to give feedback, but will not give a grade. Teachers use the so-called formative approach, so instead of a grade at school, you can get a “Good job” (“Good”) or “Try better next time” (“Try next time to do better”). That is, the teacher either praises for a job well done, or draws attention to what can be improved. nine0005

At the end of the semester, schools arrange control sections in the form of testing on a 100% scale. If the child scored at least 51%, it is considered that he has already passed (“passed”). With homework, things are also not the same as in Russia. If a student, for example, did not complete it, came to the lesson unprepared, he is left after the lessons, and he does all the tasks. It is noteworthy that there are no general parent-teacher meetings in Singapore. Each family is invited separately and the results of the child are discussed face-to-face. That is, neither I nor my son know who in his class is an “excellent student” and who is a “loser student”. nine0005

Switzerland is another country where the quality of secondary education is highly valued in the world. We talked with Natalya, who has four children in Switzerland, about the peculiarities of assessment in local schools. The specificity of the Swiss education system lies in the fact that each region (canton) has its own rules, and, in fact, we are talking about 26 independent education systems.

Natalia, mother of four children aged 7, 9, 12 and 14 (Switzerland):

,nineor 5.7. There are no grades during preschool preparation, grades in elementary school are only from the second grade. However, according to the results of academic performance during the first year of education, children are redistributed into different classes. The students who showed the best results get into the “A” class, the average ones go to the “B” class, and all the rest to the “C” class. Of course, parents want their children to get into class “A”, because then it will be easier for them to study in high school. It turns out that the school has strong and weak classes. And if the child wants to move to a stronger class, he will have to prove his abilities. nine0005

Switzerland has four official state languages ​​and a lot of attention is paid to learning them, so it is important that children speak well and have good grades in school. This is important both when entering school, and when transferring from elementary school to secondary school and beyond.

The French government has been reforming the education system since 2012, while the assessment system has remained unchanged for several decades. What is the advantage of a twenty-point scale – says Nikolai from France, the father of a teenage girl. nine0005

Nikolai, father of a 13-year-old daughter (France):

“France uses a twenty-point system. Moreover, in elementary school, the maximum score is most often 10 points.

My daughter studies mostly with “good” and “excellent” grades and gets 15-18 points. If the teacher gave more than 10 points, consider that you received a positive mark. If 9.5 – you study the material again. 12 can be compared with our “troika”, but 12.5 is closer to “good”. At first, I joked that school grades were like skaters’ grades during the Olympics. Over time, I realized that this approach makes it possible to assess the child more objectively. When a teacher has only “twos”, “threes”, “fours” and “fives” in his arsenal, there is a chance to pull up the “weak” and underestimate the success of the “strong”. In the French system, this issue is removed by the use of fractional estimates. nine0005

Finland consistently ranks high in the PISA rankings over recent years, and according to 2018 data, is in the top ten. This country was the first in the world to abolish subjects and replace them with the study of phenomena (phenomenon based learning). Students take some phenomenon, object, concept or event, for example, a specific area of ​​​​a city or migrants, and consider it from the point of view of different disciplines – history, geography, sociology, economics.

Alla, mother of a 9-year-old daughter (Finland):

“When I was choosing a country to live in, I paid special attention to studying the education system. Finland didn’t leave me a chance. I, a person who grew up in the USSR, where assessment is the ultimate truth and a way to assess whether I am “good” or “bad”, this country conquered. I wanted my daughter to study only here, as the school respects the personality of the child.

In Finland, in elementary school, from 1st to 6th grade, no marks are given, instead of them there are ticks and points for tests and tests. These marks do not affect anything. There are no diaries either. For example, I still remember the diary with horror. It was the scariest day of the week when parents looked at grades in the diary, and often punishment followed. nine0005

The teacher meets with each parent separately, and for 15 minutes discusses with him the achievements and questions of the child.

My friends’ children are already in high school, and I know that grades are not given to the whole class. They give you an upside-down piece of paper with a proven work, and only you yourself know the mark. It is especially pleasing that there are no marks at all in physical education. It was only after studying the school system in Finland that I realized how traumatized we were when we were graded for physical ability. I ran 100 meters faster than anyone – a hero, and if God forbid the last – this is a complete failure and a blow to self-esteem. By the way, it is the ability to evaluate one’s own achievements that is independently developed in Finnish schools from the 1st grade. ” nine0005

In Russia, assessment is different. You can read about how a teacher in a Russian school can reduce the level of student stress from assessment in our other article.

In recent years, Australia has been ranked 20-30 in the PISA rankings, and its positions are falling from year to year. For example, in 2003 the country ranked 10th on the list. In schools, students are not fed hot lunches, but they have two big breaks when they walk outside – the climate allows. In high school, the child can choose which subjects he is interested in studying. At the same time, there are mandatory ones – mathematics and English. nine0005

Anna, mother of a 4-year-old son (Australia):

“My son does not go to school yet, but of course, I studied in advance how everything would be and how grades are given at school. Here, children go to school at the age of 5, which is quite early. The preparatory class is more like a kindergarten, however, they don’t feed or put to bed there. The grading system here is similar to the five-point scale in Russia. My friends, local residents, told me that a few years ago, “A” was something close to our five, “A +” could only be obtained for special achievements. After the innovations, “A” was rarely given when the student showed very high results, much more often “B” or “C”. nine0005

The assessment system in Russian schools also does not stand still: approaches, conditions, criteria, and the role of the teacher in the process are changing. Especially for educators, the methodologists of the “I am a Teacher” teacher development program, in collaboration with well-known experts, have prepared a free online course “Assessment for Learning”. In order to take the course, you need to have an account (mail) in Yandex. The course will help you learn how to effectively use formative assessment, overcome the disadvantages of traditional assessment, and understand the intricacies of grading using online tools. nine0005

FORMATIO – School grading system

Most Russian schools have been practicing a five-point system for decades

evaluation. It is familiar to both students and parents, teachers. However, at present

Questions about the reform of the assessment system are increasingly being raised.

Rosobrnadzor proposed to replace the traditional five-point grading system in general education schools with a 12-point one. The department believes that it is time to introduce “modern methods of assessing knowledge.” Deputy head of Rosobrnadzor Anzor Muzaev, in an interview with Izvestia, said that the Russian authorities have been going for many years to build an all-Russian quality assessment system. The Education Quality Monitoring Center of the Institute of Education of the National Research University Higher School of Economics supported the position of Rosobrnadzor on this issue and stated that the five-point assessment system is yesterday. The Center’s experts note that, in fact, there is a four-point system in schools, because “they don’t give a stake to anyone.” “At the same time, the teacher puts three with a plus, four with a minus. It is necessary to legalize these pluses and minuses,” the Center believes. nine0005

At the all-Russian meeting of parents on August 31, 2018, with the participation of the Minister of Education of the Russian Federation with direct contributions from the regions, the issue of reforming the assessment system at school was also raised. “The decision on the need for grades in Russian schools should be provided to the expert community, but they should not be in the first grades,” Russian Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva said at the all-Russian parent meeting.

Previously, Vasilyeva noted that the five-point assessment system in schools is traditional for Russia, and the transition to another system is hardly possible and necessary, because the five-point system has existed in the country for 75 years. A similar system is also used in many other countries. “Ideas of switching to other systems are constantly floating around. Now the discussion has become more active. Someone suggests using even zero as an assessment, someone – to reach a 100-point system in order to get as close as possible to the USE grading system, ”said Vasilyeva and noted that the initiators of ideas do not offer clear criteria for their new systems. The minister stressed that there were no serious proposals to change the grading system yet. nine0005

At the same time, some general education organizations independently switch to other assessment systems. For example, at the end of March, the teachers of one of the lyceums in Krasnoyarsk stopped assessing students’ knowledge on a five-point system. They stated that grading does not stimulate children to learn and does not show the child’s real level of knowledge. Instead of the usual grades, teachers decided to record comments in an electronic journal about the achievements, progress and problems of each student. Let’s see what is behind the generally accepted assessment system in our schools. nine0005

Reference: “The digital five-point system was introduced in Russia back in 1944 by the Decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR No. 18 dated January 10, 1944. Currently, the school assessment system is regulated by the Federal Law of December 29, 2012 No. 273-FZ (as amended on July 3, 2016) “On Education in the Russian Federation”, Article 28, paragraph 3: “… an educational organization has autonomy in the implementation of ongoing monitoring of academic performance and intermediate certification of students, establishing their forms, frequency and procedure for conducting. nine0005

The five-point system consists in determining the knowledge of students by marks that are set by the teacher based on certain criteria. The criteria for all subjects are different, but it is possible to determine the general requirements for all subjects:

5 – “excellent” – used in case of deep assimilation of the material, a convincing answer, no errors;

4 – “good” – put in the case when the material is mastered, however, minor inaccuracies were made when completing the task; nine0005

3- “satisfactory” – used in the presence of some knowledge that the student cannot accurately state, makes mistakes;

2 – “unsatisfactory” – indicates a poor understanding of the material;

1 – “one” – in practice, such an assessment is practically not used, therefore there is no specific definition for it. Theoretically, the score 1 (one) indicates a lack of understanding of the material.

The five-point grading system is familiar and familiar to many, so parents and students do not have questions about the grading criteria. This is the main advantage of this system, as well as the simplicity of the evaluation criteria. Unlike other assessment methods that use a larger number of assessments, the five-point scale does not include many criteria by which the depth of understanding of the material is determined. It takes less time for the student to answer, as well as for the teacher to check the work. In order to determine the correct grade with a ten-point grading system, the teacher needs to ask the student a lot of additional questions. At the same time, the five-point system offers a specific level of knowledge for each assessment. The presence of a large number of assessments blurs the lines between them. So, for example, in a five-point grading system, there is a big difference between 5 and 3. If we take a ten-point grading system, then the difference between 5 and 7, for example, is difficult to identify not only for the student, but also for the teacher. nine0005

Disadvantages of the five-point system

The main disadvantages are the non-use in practice of such grades as 2 and 1. Teachers most often use grades 3, 4 or 5, and they prefer not to give two, and even more so one. Therefore, this system is rather “three-point” . A bad habit can be called the way teachers use grades “with a minus”, “with a plus” … The use of such grades reduces the accuracy of the result. But even such an expansion of the scale is sometimes not enough for teachers, which gives rise to such outlandish marks as “four with two minuses” or “three with a big minus” . Obviously, such evaluative creativity is generated precisely by the low accuracy of the standard scale. The presence of “pluses” and “minuses” would remain a small drawback if they were legalized, and there was the possibility of taking them into account when deriving the final mark. But when transferred to class magazines, all the “pluses” and “minuses” disappear, which can lead to a biased assessment of students. Anyone who has studied at school can give many such examples. A big disadvantage of the five-point scale is the difference from many modern methods of assessing knowledge. The most striking example is the Unified State Exam. It is mandatory for graduates of each school, the further education of the child depends on its results. At the same time, the assessment scale for the USE is 100 point . Therefore, students and parents often have problems with the analysis of the results of the exam, as they are accustomed to a five-point scale.

The disadvantage of all scoring systems, many experts call the lack of evaluation of student progress. Points are given only for a specific work, strict criteria are used. In this case, the previous level of knowledge of the student is not taken into account. This prevents the teacher from assessing the student’s progress. The education system undergoes many changes every year. Therefore, the five-point system for assessing knowledge is becoming less and less relevant. For many years experts have been arguing about the need to reform it. Most foreign countries use other assessment systems, which also have their own advantages and disadvantages. Today, the issue of abolishing any point system at all is acute, since grades often become a reason for strong stress for students. At the same time, assessments cannot give an accurate description of the level of knowledge of the child, and also do not take into account his progress, which reduces the motivation to study. nine0005

100 point system

Pros . There is no conflict with the USE, also assessed on a 100-point scale. It allows you to understand how much is missing from the ideal and visually see progress if you study better.

Cons . May create a sense of unfairness when evaluating creative assignments. Like other assessment systems, it is not aimed at ensuring that all students perform tasks only well and excellently, which, of course, is unrealistic in principle.

System with the award of places (ratings)

Pluses . Thanks to the competitive spirit, it gives a powerful incentive to get a good education. It has a relative character (this month the first one is one student, next number one may already be another). Climbing the rating steps, the child increases his self-esteem. With the help of a rating system, you can easily determine the result, identify and encourage even a slight progress of the student.

Cons . It creates serious competition among schoolchildren, does not push students to communicate and interact, does not form the skill of working in a team. It becomes simply not profitable for students to cooperate. Constantly in the team there are obvious outsiders.

Criteria system (for each completed task or work, the student is given several different points at the same time according to different criteria).

Pros . A foreign language, for example, can be evaluated according to seven criteria, mathematics – according to four. In this way, it is clear in which areas success has been achieved and where there are gaps. The system does not form perfectionism, as well as complexes (“I’m bad, stupid, weak”). nine0005

Minuses . With such a system, the emotional component is lost. Criteria system does not give the feeling “I’m an excellent student.” Because the more differentiated it is, the more difficult it is to get upper and lower scores for all criteria. And emotions, not only positive, but also negative, are a strong stimulus in learning.

Pass/fail (satisfactory/unsatisfactory)

Pros . It does not create unnecessary rivalry between students, it aims children at getting results. nine0005

Minuses . There is a very thin line between positive and negative. There is no motivation for self-improvement (to learn, to do better, better). This approach can be transferred to other areas of life, which leads to a decrease in its quality.

Marks are not set at all

Pluses . Creates psychological comfort. It allows you to realize: you need to chase not for grades, but for knowledge, and concentrate on your studies. Without experiencing evaluative neurosis, some children begin to learn noticeably better. No need to cheat, cheat out of fear of getting a bad mark, lie to your parents and hide the diary if you get an unsatisfactory mark. nine0005

Minuses . For many students, there is less incentive to study well. It is difficult for both them and their parents to objectively assess how the material is learned.

How are grades given abroad?

Marks were and are in schools all over the world, and since ancient times they have not changed much. For example, children in ancient Egypt were given one stick for a mediocre answer and two for a good one. Then the sticks were simply drawn on student parchment. This is exactly what is happening now. What is the grading system in other countries today? Maybe we have something to learn from them? nine0005

Germany . 6-point scale. In the German system, 1 is the best grade and 6 is the worst.

France . 20-point system. It should be noted that, with rare exceptions, French students are not given higher than 17-18 points.

Italy . 30-point system. The most differentiated scale among European countries. The best students have “thirty” in their notebooks.

UK . Word system. In some English schools, instead of a digital mark in a student’s notebook or diary, you can see an entry like “answered the lesson mostly without errors”, “homework was done averagely”, “test work was written generally well”. nine0005

USA . Letter system (A-F). American students receive a “quality index” from A to F. The mark “A” is set if the student has correctly completed more than 90% of the task, in part it corresponds to the usual “5” points for us.

Japan .100 point scale. Surprisingly, in Japan there are often situations when a mark is given not to one specific student for a completed task or a solved example, but to the whole class at once – one collective mark. nine0005

Critical analysis of the traditional assessment system: an ethical aspect.

Russian schools almost universally use a five-point system for assessing students’ educational achievements. Many researchers note that this system needs to be improved. Moreover, some speak about this in a very harsh form: “the need to modernize the domestic control and evaluation model is long overdue,” “scientists, technical school teachers, and teachers expressed their views. All of them consider the five-point system an absolute anachronism.” Many authors (Abasov Z. A., Amonashvili Sh.A., Arkhangelsky S.I., Guzeev V.V., Zvonnikov V.I., Karnaukhova M.V., Ksenzova G.Yu., Pidkasisty P.I. , Podlasy I.P., Chelyshkova M.B., etc.) conducted a fairly complete analysis of the shortcomings of the traditional assessment system: low information content of the mark, low differentiating ability, lack of clear rules for deriving final marks, the same weight of any marks, etc. Of the authors listed above, Sh.A. Amonashvili. nine0005

In his research, the point system of assessment is subjected to devastating criticism, including from the moral side. What are the shortcomings of the traditional assessment system that lead to results that have an obvious ethical connotation? The low resolution of the assessment system and the limitation of its scale from above inevitably lead to the fact that students with different levels of educational achievements can be assessed with the same mark. It is clear that the whole variety of educational successes and failures is almost impossible to fit into the Procrustean bed of a five-point system. The presence of only four marks leads to the fact that often the same final mark in the subject is received by students whose level of knowledge varies greatly. Such facts give rise to talk about the “injustice” of grades and lead to their depreciation. In any case, the parallel existence of an official and “extended” scale undermines the credibility of the grading system. It is worth noting another aspect that usually escapes the field of view. Low resolution leads to the fact that the mark is often undeserved. The derivation of the final mark using rounding often creates a situation where an excellent mark is received by a student who does not know a significant proportion of the material as “excellent”. So with the current marks “5”, “4”, “5”, “4”, “5” – the final mark will be “five”. The reference to the fact that such rounding is done “in favor of the student” only masks the ethical ambiguity of the position in which the student receives a mark that does not correspond to his level of knowledge. It is clear that all these vague formulations: “reserves the teacher the right”, “as a rule”, “the greatest importance is attached” accurately reflect the practice that has developed over the years, which is expressed by the words: “At the discretion of the teacher.” So, the vagueness of the rules for deriving final grades forces the teacher to take on the role of a judge in controversial cases, which leads to a number of consequences. On the one hand, this reinforces the “special” role of the teacher. He now acts not only as an expert in his subject area, but also as an “evaluator” of completely different manifestations of the student. Often in a controversial situation, teachers tend to take into account such very ephemeral matters as attitude to the subject, diligence, systematic studies, stability of results. On the other hand, the student in such a situation receives a very important life lesson. He understands that many difficult situations are not regulated by law, and that someone can take on the function of “regulator”. Although in no case can it be said that such actions of the teacher are illegal. Just the imperfection of the law, the presence of ambiguities in the rules for deriving marks and suggests a “special” role of the teacher as an interpreter of the law, a kind of additional source of law. The student in this situation most often remains a passive and powerless observer. nine0005

There is another example, not directly related to grades, but very well showing the passivity of the student and his dependence on the teacher as the bearer of power. This is the right of the teacher to question the student at any lesson and the practical impossibility of refusing to answer – for the student. September 10, 2018 The Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation for the Development of Education and Science launched a survey on the website of the Civic Chamber on what system should be used to assess the knowledge of students at school. You can express your opinion up to 25 September on the portal of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.