As is known, the goal of primary school education is to help children learn the basis of knowledge in basic subjects, which will be further enforced in the future. In addition, it is important to teach students to navigate themselves in the sea of information, find answers to their questions, analyze, work with information. The results of the joint work of teachers and pupils for the sake of clarity are usually noted by assessments.
In recent years, the system of evaluation has undergone reforms and changes, as well as questioning the appropriateness of its application in primary school. Despite its habitual and seemingly firmness, there is a rational grain in this, because it is the norms of assessments in the primary school that can negatively affect the objectivity of the attitude towards the students on the part of the teachers, and also form an ineffective external motivation to learn from the students. Innovators in the sphere of education propose to adopt the experience of a number of European countries and in general to cancel the assessment of junior schoolchildren in a number of subjects.
Assessment criteria in primary school depend directly on the subject. For each of them, there are a number of requirements that the student must meet in order to qualify for one or another evaluation. In addition, there is a list of errors that are considered "rude" and should influence the decline of the mark, and there are those that are "insignificant". The requirements differ, depending on the type of work - oral or written.
As for the criteria and standards for grading in primary school, they directly depend on the scale of the assessment. Most of us are accustomed to and familiar with the five-point system of assessing school successes, which dominated in schools since Soviet times. After the dissolution of the Union, the countries that had previously joined it gradually moved to other grades of evaluation. For example, in Ukraine in 2000, a twelve-point assessment system was introduced.
Evaluation criteria on a twelve-scale scale
They can be grouped into 4 levels, each of which has its own clear requirements:
- initial level - grades from 1 to 3 points. The pupil's knowledge of the subject is fragmented at the level of elementary representations;
- the average level is from 4 to 6 points. The student has basic knowledge of the subject, is able to reproduce them, and also possesses the basic skills of educational activity;
- a sufficient level - from 7 to 9 points. The student has all the necessary concepts regarding the subject, can explain their patterns and connections, successfully uses the accumulated knowledge in standard situations, but he lacks the independence of thinking;
- a high level - from 10 to 12 points. The student's knowledge is extensive and fundamental. He is able to analyze the information received, draw his own conclusions, use it to implement creative projects. Has a clear point of view and knows how to defend it.
It is recommended to start grading in primary school for this system from the second year of study. In the first grade, the teacher simply gives a verbal description of the knowledge, skills and achievements of students.
Evaluation criteria on a five-point scale
Despite active educational reforms, Russian schools continue to use a five-point system for assessing knowledge, where assessments are issued based on the following criteria:
- grade 5 - excellent - exhibited to the student, whose knowledge, answers and works fully meet all the requirements of the curriculum;
- grade 4 - good - schoolchildren whose knowledge of the work as a whole meet the requirements are receiving, however they are incomplete or they have some gross errors;
- an assessment of 3 - satisfactorily - is made for pupils who know the basic material on the subject, but allow mistakes and shortcomings;
- assessment 2 - not enough - can get students whose knowledge meets the requirements of the training program only partially;
- the score 1 -weak - is put in the case when the student's answers, works and practical activities run counter to the program and do not correspond to it.