Do not evaluate students in a 'neutral' way

(Baonghean) - Considered to have many new points to overcome the shortcomings of Circular 30/2014 on primary school student assessment, Circular 22/2016 of the Ministry of Education and Training has gradually come into practice. However, there are still difficulties.

» Priest Nguyen Dinh Thuc incites parishioners

Innovations

Circular 30/2014/TT-BGDDT of the Ministry of Education and Training has been implemented nationwide since 2014 with the aim of changing the way primary school students are assessed, shifting from assessment by scores to assessment by comments. However, after 2 years of implementation, the circular has revealed many shortcomings such as qualitative assessment, unclear and rigid comments.

The reward regulations are not specific, so teachers are confused, causing a state of reward "chaos". Management in many localities is still mechanical, leading to pressure on teachers. Due to these shortcomings, on September 22, 2016, the Ministry of Education and Training issued Circular 22/2016/TT-BGDDT amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular 30.

According to teacher Nguyen Thi Hanh - Principal of Dien Chau Town Primary School: Regarding the requirements, principles of assessment and general spirit, Circular 22 still maintains the core and basic points of the spirit of Circular 30, which is "regular assessment by comments, periodic assessment by scores combined with comments".

However, Circular 22 has the advantage of helping teachers evaluate more easily and specifically. Accordingly, instead of having 2 levels of evaluation "complete" and "incomplete" like Circular 30, Circular 22 has three levels of evaluation: "Complete well", "Complete" and "Incomplete". These three levels more clearly recognize the results of students' efforts, helping parents better grasp the level of achievement of their children.

IT class for students of Dien Chau Town Primary School. Photo: MH

Circular 22 also stipulates that through the regular assessment process at the middle and end of each semester, each capacity and quality is quantified into three levels: Good, Achieved, Need to try (previously, according to Circular 30, there were only 2 levels "achieved" and "not achieved").

This quantification allows teachers, administrators, and parents to determine the level of formation and development of students' abilities and qualities after a period of study and training. From there, teachers and schools can have timely solutions to help students overcome limitations and promote positive points so that they can progress more and more.

At Dien Chau Town Primary School, at the end of the first semester, student assessment has been adjusted. Specifically, while previously, students only had a final exam, now there is a mid-term exam. Teachers therefore have more basis to comment and evaluate students' abilities. The school also has a policy of not publicly announcing the class's mid-point scores but sending the results to each family so that both sides can review and coordinate to help students.

Need teachers' dedication and objectivity

After a semester of implementing Circular 22, parents have clearly seen the adjustments in the way of commenting and evaluating. However, many schools and teachers are still reluctant and mechanical in their evaluation methods. For example, clinging to the viewpoint of Circular 22 that is to "make students progress", many homeroom teachers are "afraid" to talk about the limitations and shortcomings of students. In fact, the way of generalizing, only "praise" and not "criticize" is not necessarily effective and makes students not conscious of trying and improving.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh, whose child is in 2nd grade at an elementary school in the city, shared: "Every time we are parents, we want the teacher to comment more carefully on each child to know their abilities and the abilities of the students in the class, but in return we only receive general comments that are "harmless".

Meanwhile, the paper that teachers give to each parent to evaluate their child is still sketchy and not thorough, such as "not completed", "completed" or "needs to try", all students are similar.

Class time of students at Liu Qian Primary School (Xiangyang). Photo: MH

Also according to Circular 22, the assessment of students' abilities, qualities, and learning, in addition to teachers' observations, also includes the assessment of each student's comments. In the classroom, this will be the responsibility of the groups. However, to do this objectively, honestly, and responsibly is still very "difficult", because at primary school age, students still perceive things subjectively and very emotionally.

As for teachers of subjects such as Foreign Languages, Fine Arts, Music, Physical Education..., according to regulations, they will also evaluate each student, but obviously with teaching many classes, it is very difficult to accurately evaluate each student. Therefore, in addition to the two main subjects of Literature and Vietnamese, the evaluation of the remaining subjects is still incomplete and lacks information.

With Circular 22, interaction and exchange between parents and schools are also very important. Currently, Nghe An Education Department has directed the use of two channels of information provision to enhance coordination between schools and families. One is to record comments on students' study sheets or practice notebooks to help parents know which learning content their children have completed, have not completed, or are still having difficulties with;

Second, periodically in the middle of the semester, at the end of the first semester and at the end of the school year, teachers record their students' evaluations in the contact book and receive feedback from the students' parents. This is the rule, but this seems to be only suitable for favorable areas; in mountainous areas, this coordination is difficult to bring about effectiveness.

At Muong Long Primary School (Ky Son), teacher Nguyen Thi Thu confided: “In the highlands, many parents have limited awareness, so it is difficult to communicate and share with them. Most parents, when sending their children to school, entrust everything to the school...”.

Research also shows that the current policy of the industry is to interact using contact books, but in Vinh city and many other localities, they do not use them or only use them as a formality at the end of each semester. Many teachers also said that they replaced contact books with phone contacts, but in reality this only happens in a few special cases. Therefore, the interaction between parents and schools is not as expected.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Tran The Son - Head of Primary Education Department, Department of Education and Training said: In my opinion, Circular 22 is a great step forward in assessing students in primary schools. However, because it has just been implemented, it is understandable that it has received many conflicting opinions, when the new thinking about assessment has not yet formed in the practical awareness of the whole society, especially the teaching staff. On the other hand, the Education sector itself has not really paid attention to communication work in the innovation process, so it has unintentionally created conflicting effects every time the sector has a change...

These shortcomings will also be lessons for the education sector to have a more comprehensive approach in the next stage and for Circular 22 to be effectively implemented./.

My Ha