Assessing pupils’ progress during the transitional period

The current educational experience reveals that now, when we are halfway in the process of the implementation of the Lithuanian Education System reforms, the area of pupils’ progress assessment has become a priority. This article covers the results of the research that aimed at examining the assessment of the fifth-grade children’s progress with regard to its educational dimensions. At Secondary State School idiographic assessment is replaced by criteria-based assessment (marking) during the transitional period that is in 5th year of learning. The research has indicated the subject teachers’ attitudes towards the assessment of the fifth-grade children they work with. The teachers think that assessment motivates the pupils and informs their parents about the children’s achievements and knowledge gaps. Moreover, assessment marks encourage children to self- assess their own performance, inspire them not to lag behind their classmates, and maintain discipline. The subject teachers have noted the following disadvantages of idiographic assessment: it is not impartial, and lacks accuracy; moreover, it is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and adds some burden of red tape. Yet, the subject teachers have noticed the advantages of idiographic assessment. First, it makes pupils feel equal among their peers. As the teachers have stated, pupils have an impression that they all learn well, thus, they feel that they are on a par with each other. Second, an individual pupil does not have a feeling that he / she does worse than the rest of the class. Generally, the teacher's attitudes towards idiographic assessment and criteria-based assessment are influenced by a term of teacher’s work at school and a teacher qualification category. Younger teachers - those without much teaching experience or any teacher qualification category - are more positive about idiographic assessment