Getting 9 points is still not fun if it is lower than your friends

Professor Le Anh Vinh, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences , opened the discussion with a small survey right in the hall when he presented three ways to evaluate students' learning outcomes for delegates to choose from: one is grading; two is combining grading and comments; three is only comments. As a result, the majority of delegates chose the second method.

PHOTO: MARINE

However, according to Professor Vinh, a research result has shown that assessment by scoring or scoring combined with comments does not bring significant changes in students' learning outcomes; only assessment by comments brings the expected changes.

Professor Le Anh Vinh recalled the changes in primary school student assessment since Circular 30, which eliminated regular grading and then schools and teachers were under great pressure because they did not know whether the comments could accurately and adequately assess students. On the other hand, parents were "confused" when their children came home from school without any grades. Even though the teacher commented that their children had improved and praised them, parents were still not reassured and were not as happy as when their children got 9 or 10 points. After that, Circular 30 had to be adjusted a lot before it could be implemented in practice.

Director Le Anh Vinh said, we often think that more is better, if we combine both scoring and commenting it will be better than just one form. Teachers praise students well, but parents still need teachers to give their children 9 or 10 points. There was a funny but thoughtful story about a child coming home to brag to his father that he got 9 points, the father praised him and then heard his child say "9 points but the lowest in the class" and the father was sad. On the contrary, when the child got 6 points but that was the highest score in the class, the parents were still excited and praised the child for being so good.

Professor Le Anh Vinh said: "Simply because when there are scores , no one cares about the comments and the true nature of what is happening in the classroom. We have too many students with high scores, many 10s, but there are many problems. Scores are not everything."

According to Professor Le Anh Vinh, the reason many countries extend primary school from 5 years to 6 years is because they want children to have more time to live carefree, without pressure, and to be equipped with basic skills rather than focusing on knowledge and academic achievements.

The most serious "achievement disease" imposed by the management agency

Associate Professor Nguyen Thi Hong Thuan, Director of the Center for Psychology and Education Research (Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences), said that her research group on pressure in schools has shown that the most serious " achievement disease " comes from management agencies. From there, they impose pressure on schools, schools put pressure on teachers and thus pressure on students. In following the requirements from above, teachers do not realize that they have put pressure on students, causing them to suffer very unfortunate consequences for their mental health.

Ms. Thuan also pointed out that there is a lot of pressure on students, not just academic results. When treating students psychologically, there are first graders who are stressed by requirements that we rarely expect. For example, just preparing and arranging school supplies before going to class can cause students to be stressed because teachers often find fault at school and are severely criticized if they do not have school supplies. Some students wake up in a panic from their sleep because they dream that they do not bring school supplies to class!

Many students shared that they just wish to have a full day of the week without having to go to school because they study too much nowadays, going to school all week, and going to extra classes on the weekends; many students wish they didn't have to take too many exams... That pressure also comes from their families, who have too high expectations of their children.

Photo: Hai Su

Associate Professor Tran Thanh Nam, Vice Principal of the University of Education (Vietnam National University, Hanoi ), said that even though parents do not set direct expectations or demands, the way they behave also puts pressure on their children, such as: admiring the academic achievements of "other people's children", bringing negative emotions when they only comment when children make mistakes, and when they do well and try hard, they do not "appear" to praise and encourage them...

Dr. Thach Thi Lan Anh, Vice Principal of the Experimental School of Educational Sciences (Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences), confidently asserted that her school has never created pressure within the school. Taking the example of major competitions, Ms. Anh said that although the school still participates, it has never had a "key" team for any activity. When launching a competition, the school will let students register voluntarily, not select students for the team and organize training to achieve the goal of having prizes, achievements, etc.

Professor Le Anh Vinh also said that adults often expect and set goals for children to be good students, to win this award or that award, to get into school A or school B... "But I want to emphasize that those goals are too small for a person... If we don't put too much pressure on each small step, we can go a long way...", Mr. Vinh said.

"We often say that high school and university students are weak in self-study ability, but if we do not train children in self-study ability from primary school, we cannot expect them to be able to self-study when they grow up. There is no easy solution to the story of pressure on children. In the end, it all comes back to love, care and the true desire from the bottom of our hearts for the child to improve...", Professor Le Anh Vinh said at the end of the discussion.