As you will know, the first semester of the Turkish academic year finished last week and schools are now on holiday. Last Friday was a bit of an empty day as most students in my school either left early when their parents came in to get them or just came in to pick up their report cards.
Even though students in Primary School generally get good grades, you can see the tension on their faces as they are handed the report and the relief when they see 5 and pekiyi written all over it. But the tension and the stress bothers me - why put young kids through that? It is even more prevalent for exams as I see kids literally worried sick beforehand.
Until this year, I was teaching in the 3rd Grade and I was the only English teacher for each of my classes meaning I checked their tests and wrote their reports. A few years ago, we were told that due to a Ministry of Education decision, 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders could no longer be given exams. I thought this was a step in the right direction but the reaction was ridiculous - the kids basically continued to sit exams but they were not called sınav. Instead, değerlendirme (assessment for our non-Turkish readers) was used but it was exactly the same thing!!
And so, this year when I moved to the 4th Grade skills programme in which I share the class with another teacher, I was happy to learn there would be no testing or reports from my classes. This would be the responsiblity of the other 'grammar' teacher leaving me free to focus on speaking and writing skills and motivating stress-free activities. However, despite my joy at being in this situation, I experienced some problems. It was clear with a small number of students in each class that they weren't taking my lessons seriously. The majority of the kids were fine and participated in the lessons well but a few were not working hard, not bringing their books and not finishing their work.
Towards the end of December, my head of department announced there would after all be a test on my lessons and a grade for 'English skills' would be added to the report. I was against this at first but once news filtered to the students I noticed a change. Those children who had previously been a bit too 'relaxed' about my classes suddenly started to show more effort: some hurriedly updated their notebooks and were despereate for me to review them again; others hastily handed in projects they should have finished weeks ago; and others began to actively participate in every lesson.
So, in a way, despite my reluctance to have a test and give grades, it was a good idea as it finally provided those reluctant students with motivation to try harder. However, with the other hard-working students (the majority of them), I saw that familiar fear and worry on their faces, especially in the week we did the test.
I would leave to hear your thoughts on this subject:
- Are you for or against grades for this age group?
- Should we be testing them?
- How else can motivate them without the fear of tests and grades?
- DaveDodgson's blog
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Comments
Hi!
I am for grades because it is a form of assessment among others. That is, only if the exam if fair and valid. Too many times the teacher says, " We covered this or that, they should know it," when actually the content should be uncovered, not covered.
There is the tendency also to mark every little thing wrong on the exam. Many times I have seen teachers take off points for ambitious writing. That is scary. Many native kids couldn't do some of the grammar sections because they are so unnatural. So, of course the kids are worried because they know the rules of the game are against them.
Not all kids are motivated for school and learning and that is perfectly normal. They are not all at the same maturity or have the same metacognitive level or intrapersonal skills. Some value social skills more and we might agree with them.
That said, I think it is ok, if you are not motivated for yourself, to be motivated because you like your teacher or for your parent or the exam grade.
I believe when students understand and enjoy the content, are sure of a valid test, they like being tested.
I come from a background where I did not have grades until I was in 6th grade, but that does not mean that I was not learning things before then.
I think that grading young students feeds into the "grade grubbing" mentality that I see up at the high school level. The grade grubbing is a bit more over the top here in Turkey than it is in the U.S.A., but it exists there too.
As the world moves away from memorized knowledge, to a society that needs to create thinkers, educators need to help students have an intrinsic love for learning rather than be focused on extrinsic rewards (like good grades). Upper level students have been trained for many years to only focus on the grade, rather than the quality of learning they have accomplished within the course.
I would suggest that evaluating student learning at lower grades is not out of place, but formal testing and grades are. The primary years should be about developing a love for learning that will continue throughout a lifetime, and teaching students about dealing with frustration and how to stick with something even though it may be difficult.
I can also see that not awarding grades in a system where every other teacher does award grades would not work. This shift would need to be a district wide change for it to have the slightest chance of working. The other big issue I see is that parents understand how grading works, and the parents may be frustrated with a new method of evaluating student progress. These are not impossibilities; rather they are difficulties that must be worked out if the system is to change.
Good questions Dave,
Unfortunately marks are the only means to make students study. Although we try to persuade our own kids at home that marks are not important. The important thing is their learning or getting the skills which will lead them to learning. However, they compete with their classmates and plus as they are twins they also compete with each other. We as parents keep repeating what we believe is true. Instead of memorizing, parroting learning should be the main concern.
I don't teach primary but this year I have 2 classes I see once a week and there usually I don't focus on any grammar but try to do more creative and oral work with those kids and they always ask me if I would mark them. These one special 7 graders are the kids of very ambitious parents and they are competing with each other. They see everything as a,b,c because of SBS and in order to make them speak I sometimes say 'I'll mark your presentations according to ...'
The phrase you used is great - the content should be uncovered, not covered :)
Too many tests focus on right/wrong answers and creating scenarios which are unnatural or forced. I try to foster self-assessment skills, not as a grading strategy but as a learning skill and this has a positive effect but still, test results have much more power to bring out a reaction in them, positive or negative and this is an issue I feel needs addressing.
You have hit the nail on the head - the root of the issue lies in the way the system works. Grades and test scores are expected from early on by students and parents alike and it's difficult (you could say impossible) for one teacher to go against that and try something different. Hopefully, it will change with time
Hi Eva,
I didn't know you had twins! I can see how that adds to the element of competition. I also have a class where there is a strong sense of rivalry between the kids and their families. That makes them a hard-working class but it also means there are tensions and high emotions. Our end of term test was marked out of 30 and I saw kids in tears because they had 28 but their friends/rivals had 29 or 30.
For grades which are not based on tests, I also think making criteria clear to the kids is important. If they know what you are looking for, they will out more effort in.