CHANGES IN STUDENT

ACHIEVEMENT ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

IN SELECTED EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Being greater does not

mean being taller.

Celéstin Freinet

CHANGES IN STUDENT

ACHIEVEMENT ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

IN SELECTED EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

A COMPARATIVE STUDY

edited by:

lech sałaciski

and andreas se idel

Cracow

univers ity of z ielona góra

© Copyright by Ofi cyna Wydawnicza „Impuls”, Cracow 2007

Review:

prof. dr hab. Eugeniusz Piotrowski

Proofread:

Agnieszka GajewskaDaria Loska

Cover design:

Ewa Beniak-Haremska

Th e publication is fi nanced by University of Zielona Góra.

ISBN 978-83-7308-655-5

Ofi cyna Wydawnicza „Impuls”

30-619 Cracow, ul. Turniejowa 59/5

phone (0-12) 422-41-80, fax (0-12) 422-59-47

www.impulsofi cyna.com.pl, e-mail: impuls@impulsofi cyna.com.pl

First edition, Cracow 2007

contents

editorial

Andreas Seidel, Wolfgang Thiem

Educational Reform and School-based Assessment of Attainment.

Current Assessment of Attainment in the Upper Classes of Secondary

Schools – Problem Analysis within the Framework of an International

Joint Project ............................................................................................ 9

pa rt ia s s e s s m e n t o f s c h o o l ac h i e v e m e n t s i n p o l a n d

Grażyna Miłkowska

Current Tendencies in the Assessment System in Poland .......................... 21

Lech Sałaciński

The Change of Factors in the Assessment of Learners’

Achievements Practice in the Polish School ............................................. 33

Magdalena Piorunek, Magdalena Dopta, Anna Wieczorek

Assessment of School Achievements in Theoretical Discourse

and Empirical Studies – Discourse on School Assessment ........................ 41

Lech Sałaciński

The Practice of Assessing the Achievements of Students

in the Polish School – Research Report ................................................... 83

Marcin Bryzek, Eugenia Karcz, Zenon Jasiński, Dariusz Widelak

The Role of Evaluation in Contemporary School:

An Example of the Opole Voivodship ...................................................... 141

Arletta Poręba-Konopczyńska

The School Grade Functioning in the Eyes of Teachers,

Students and Their Parents ...................................................................... 193

contents

pa rt i iassessment of school achievements in germany

Andreas Seidel, Uta Lehmann, Wolfgang Thiem

School-based Assessment in the Framework of the Reform

of the First Years of Secondary School in the State of Brandenburg ........ 207

pa rt i i iassessment of school achievements in russia

Olga V. Akulova, Irina U. Gutnik

Modern State of the Problem of a School Mark in Russia ....................... 267

Victor V. Semikin, Nina F. Radionova, Alla P. Tryapicina, Irina U. Gutnik,

Irina V. Gladkaya

The Problem of Evaluating Scholar Achievements in Russia,

on the Example of Sankt Petersburg – Concluding Report ...................... 273

epilogue

Lech Sałaciński

Meanders of School Assessment – Final Remarks ..................................... 333

Information of Authors ................................................................................. 341

editorial

andreas se idel,wolfgang thiem

educational reform and school-based assessment of attainment.

current assessment of attainmentin the upper classes of secondary schools– problem analysis within the framework

of an international joint project

1. aims of an international joint project between easterneuropean countries on the subject of educational reform

In , the Institute of Education of the University of Potsdam initiat-ed an annual joint conference in Potsdam for those involved in teacher train-ing in eastern European countries. The aim was to discuss the trends and problems of educational reform in these countries since the transformation of society and political life. The terms of the joint project of university edu-cational institutes was laid down in a contract and unites educational scien-tists from the University of Opole, the former Tadeusz Kotarbiński College of Education, now the University of Zielona Góra and the Adam Mickie-wicz University in Poznań (all in Poland), the A. I. Herzen Russian State Ped-agogical University in St Petersburg (Russia) and the University of Potsdam (Germany). The State Educational University M. Tank in Belarus and the Republican Institute for Higher Education in Minsk, Belarus were also in-volved until . The acquisition of additional sponsors enabled the par-ticipation at some of the conferences of representatives from Charles Uni-versity in Prague (Czech Republic) and the Eötvös-Loránd-Universität and later the College of Education in Budapest (Hungary).

Klaus-Dieter Mende initiated a multilateral research project, which was developed in cooperation with the institutions named, to examine the educa-tional reform which followed the political and social transformation in these countries. The project also intensified the cooperation of other departments of the relevant universities and institutes of higher education, for the inter-national cooperation took place on the basis of bilateral contracts at vice-chancellor level between the universities and institutes of higher education involved. The multilateral project was codified and later extended in bilat-eral perspective agreements and annual plans, each lasting several years, and

editorial

also left room for special bilateral projects, e.g. book publications by the uni-versities of Zielona Góra and St Petersburg with the University of Potsdam, on the subject of the teacher in educational reform. An interim statement of the work of the joint project was made in a contribution to a Festschrift in honour of Klaus-Dieter Mende.

Within the framework of the aspects of the educational reform resulting from the transformation of society which were the subject of the study, the question of recording and assessing attainment inevitably came up. In vari-ous areas of the educational systems of the countries involved, formulating educational standards in the sense of specifying and establishing the aims of education played an important part. All the partners in the joint project had similar views of the problems of relevant developments, which led to the de-cision to make the connection between educational reform and school-based assessment of attainment the focus of the joint work for and . The preparation and carrying out of a joint study, working towards a necessari-ly changed, extended understanding of attainment as an expression of edu-cational reform, became central.

2. aims and subject of a selective studyof assessment in the upper classes of secondary school

The participants in the scientific conference “Educational reform and as-sessment of academic attainment in school” (– September ) decid-ed to carry out partial analyses of the current experiences of pupils, parents, teaching staff and of university students (in retrospect) of teachers’ assess-ment practice in the upper classes of state secondary schools. The study was to be carried out within the framework of the international joint project in preparation of the conference for .

During the conference on – September , the scientists from St Petersburg, Zielona Góra, Opole, Poznań and Potsdam presented their pre-liminary findings, which are published here after being worked on further. The study focuses mainly on the principles, significance, subject and methods

1 Cf. W. Th iem (2004), Mehrjährige vergleichende Betrachtungen der Entwicklung des Bildungssystems nach den gesellschaftlichen Transformationen in Belarus, Polen, Russland, der Tschechischen Republik, in Ungarn und den neuen Bundesländern Deutschlands [Comparative study of the development of the educational system following the social transformation in Belarus, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and in the new federal states in Germany] [in:] D. Waterkamp (ed.), Vergleichende Pädagogik und europäische Wege der Bildung, Dresden, pp. 16–41.

educational reform and school-based assessment of attainment...

of assessment in teaching. The role of the pupils in the assessment process as well as the effect of assessment on social processes and the relationship of the pupils to their school, subjects and teachers (cf. main questions) were also included in the study.

The decisive aspect and the focus of the study were to be the experience of actual assessment practice – that is, how pupils, parents and the teachers involved in each group experience assessment practice. The aim was to try to reflect the statements of all those involved, in a sense. Thus, the teach-ers were asked how they expect their assessment to affect the pupils. In ad-dition, students were asked how they experienced their teachers’ assessments in retrospect. The questions were intended to differentiate consciously be-tween assessment in the widest sense (including verbal judgments and rea-sons stated as well as non-verbal evaluation) and marking or grades. How-ever, it is not clear how conscious those questioned were of this difference, because it was only made by the use of the two terms.

The study concentrated on the following main questions:

main question 1: functions of assessment and how it is perceived

In international publications in the field of education, as well as in na-tional and regional documents on educational policy, a multitude of func-tions in relation to social and didactic order is attributed to assessment, in differing orders of importance. On the one hand, assessment – though all too often restricted to the mere grades – prepares the way for decisions about fu-ture educational prospects, the allotment of access to further education (of-ten described as an allocation and selection function). Social functions, too, such as ranking within the group and successful socialization are also attrib-uted to assessment. On the other hand, a didactic effect is attributed to as-sessment, to different degrees, depending on the educational concept being followed, for example, to give pupils, parents and other educational institu-tions (e.g. institutes of higher education and companies which offer further training) information about the level of learning reached (information func-tion); to optimise the learning process, in other words, to diagnose and to correct (learning guidance and correction); to encourage progress and moti-vate to further effort (stimulating function); but also to provide pupils with an example of self-checking and self-assessment to enable them to carry out self-assessment (example and enabling function) as well as to inform teach-ers and pupils of the suitability of their methods, their style of working etc (feedback function). There is also a widespread conviction that assessment is often used as a means of discipline.

editorial

The above list makes clear that these functions cannot be fulfilled by grades alone; several different forms of assessment in the widest sense are required. Observation of educational reform in the participating countries revealed in every case that assessment plays a special role as an educational instrument. However there is uncertainty about which functions and individ-ual possibilities of assessment are actually deliberate and effective in teachers’ practice, and whether or how the pupils and parents are aware of them.

main question 2: what is covered by school-based assessment

The current efforts to reform schools and teaching which have been ana-lysed so far affect assessment to a varying extent. The required aims of school education were of course considered, but not always with sufficient theoret-ical system – based on a clear idea of mankind as presented by an all-round humanist education. The efforts to reform have led to a wider understanding of attainment, which includes, along with knowledge and abilities, attitudes and problem-solving strategies as well as motivational and practical charac-teristics. It demands complex contexts for learning and application of knowl-edge. Individual, independently chosen ways of learning, individual progress and effort are equally important as attainment characteristics as regular co-operation and reflection about learning processes. Attainment in school ob-viously includes personal and social competence, regardless of the content.

There is general uncertainty about how far these considerations are actu-ally present in teachers’ thinking and practice and to what extent pupils and parents are aware of them. But wider educational aims will only find accept-ance when they are included in consolidation and assessment, because the only things that are important to teachers and learners alike are those things which are acknowledged in the wider sense, that is, checked and assessed in some way. However, this does not mean that something will only be learnt if grades are given for it. There is a widespread impression that teaching still mainly consists of teacher-dominated, frontal instruction, which demands knowledge and abilities from the pupils which can easily be reproduced and assessed. Current tendencies in the formulation of educational standards clearly show this trend, in that educational results are limited to those which are easy to assess, although this is not necessary. The opening up of school and teaching also requires an opening up of the traditional methods of as-sessing attainment, although this fact is overlooked.

2 Cf. School-based assessment in fi rst years of secondary school in the state of Branden-burg.