Session Information
23 SES 08 A, Policies and Practices of Performativity and Students’ Responses
Paper Session
Contribution
The trend towards increased assessment and evaluation in education has been visible internationally for a number of years (e.g. Olovsson, 2015). Increased global competition due to international assessment programmes, such as PISA and TIMSS has resulted in the introduction of educational assessment reforms in countries all over the world (Swedish National Agency for Education, SNAE, 2015). Sweden is no exception on this. In recent reforms of the Swedish nine-year compulsory school, students’ higher target achievement has come in focus and increased monitoring of students’ performances is central (SNAE, 2015). One reform, which is meant to improve the monitoring, is the introduction of earlier end-of-term grades, in Grade 6. This reform was introduced in 2012 (before that, grades were introduced in Grade 8).
In a European perspective, the Swedish introduction of grades comes later than in most other countries (Lundahl et al. 2015). This has also been stated (Lundahl et al.) as one of the Government’s main reasons to start the first grading earlier. However, Lundahl et al. point out that there are difficulties in making comparisons between countries in terms of the actual start of the first grading, since grades are set in different ways and for different reasons.
This paper focuses Grade 9 students’ (aged 15 to 16 years) views on how their learning is affected by grades, in the context of the Swedish compulsory school. The paper builds on Olovsson (2014; 2015), who investigated the effects of the introduction of grades in Grade 6 in 2012. The study is a follow-up with the former Grade 6 students as they now attend Grade 9.
Grades are usually described as a form of summative assessment (Klapp, 2015a; Lundahl et al. 2015). Governance in the form of increased summative assessment that affects school practice is sometimes referred to as performativity(e.g. Ball, 2008; Jeffrey & Troman, 2012). The insertion of assessment reforms in the Swedish school system (with the earlier introduction of grades as one of the reforms) has been motivated with the argument that it would counteract a longer period of decline in school results. However, the government has indicated that it will take time before the reforms will have an impact in terms of improved school results (SOU 2013:30). Therefore, it is interesting to let these students be heard again, in a follow-up study, since the reform has been operating for some years now. A follow-up study is also motivated – by somewhat opposite reasons – to find out how grading for a longer period affect students’ views of learning, as previous research (Harlen & Deakin Crick, 2002; Stobart, 2008; Lundahl et al. 2015) has shown that summative assessment can affect students’ learning negatively.
The aim of the study is to investigate students’ views on their own learning and how it is affected by grades.
-How do students in Grade 9 view their own learning, especially in relation to grades?
-Have students’ views of their own learning, in relation to the grading, changed from Grade 6 to Grade 9 - and if so, in what ways?
-What differences exist between the views of students who are high-, medium- or low-achieving - and in this regard, which possible changes have taken place between Grade 6 and Grade 9?
Klapp (2015b) argues that summative assessments, as grades, affect different students in various ways, and particularly low-achieving students’ learning is negatively affected by grades. In view of this, the study’s results will be analysed in relation to Klapp (2015b). The results will also be understood and discussed in relation to Bernstein’s (2000) theoretical concepts of classification and framing.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Glaser, B.G. (1965). The constant comparative method of qualitative analysis.Social problems, 12 (4), 436-445. Harlen, W., & Deakin Crick, R. (2002). A systematic review of the impact of summative assessment and tests on students’ motivation for learning. Research Evidence in Education Library. London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. Hjerm, M., Lindgren, S. & Nilsson, M. (2014). Introduktion till samhällsvetenskaplig analys [Introduction to Social science analysis]. Malmö: Gleerups. Klapp, A. (2015a). Does grading affect educational attainment? A longitudinal study. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice. doi:10.1080/0969594X.2014.988121. Klapp, A. (2015b). Betygens effekt på motivation och lärande. [Effect of grades on motivation and learning.] In C. Lundahl, M. Hultén, A. Klapp & L. Mickwitz, Betygens geografi – forskning om betyg och summativa bedömningar i Sverige och internationellt [The Geography of grades – research on grades and summative assessment in Sweden and internationally]. Stockholm: Vetenskapsrådet. https://publikationer.vr.se/produkt/betygens-geografi-forskning-om-betyg-och-summativa-bedomningar-i-sverige-och-internationellt/ Lundahl, C., Hultén, M., Klapp, A., & Mickwitz, L. (2015). Betygens geografi– forskning om betyg och summativa bedömningar i Sverige och internationellt [The Geography of grades – research on grades and summative assessment in Sweden and internationally]. Stockholm: Vetenskapsrådet. https://publikationer.vr.se/produkt/betygens-geografi-forskning-om-betyg-och-summativa-bedomningar-i-sverige-och-internationellt/ Olovsson, T.G. (2014). The development of learner identities in relation to major reforms in Swedish compulsory school, in A. Rasmussen, J. Gustafsson och B. Jeffrey (eds.) Performativity in Education: An international collection of ethnographic research on learners’ experiences. Painswick: E&E Publishing. Olovsson, T.G. (2015). Det kontrollera(n)de klassrummet- Bedömningsprocessen i svensk grundskolepraktik i relation till införandet av nationella skolreformer [The controlled/controlling classroom - The assessment process in Swedish compulsory school practice in relation to the introduction of national school reforms]. (Diss., Department of Education, Umeå University). Swedish National Agency for Education, SNAE (2015). Skolreformer i praktiken [School reforms in practice]. Stockholm: Skolverket. http://www.skolverket.se/publikationer?id=3553 SOU 2013:30. Det tar tid – om effekter av skolpolitiska reformer [It takes time – on effects of school political reforms]. http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/16840/a/216000 Stobart, G. (2008). Testing times. New York: Routledge.
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