The Testing and Evaluation of Pupils' Knowledge

Abstract

The effectiveness of educational activity is linked to a certain extent to the effectiveness of the testing and evaluation of pupils' knowledge, and is reflected in that effectiveness. The basic method for evaluating the results of cognitive activity on the part of pupils — i.e., the degree to which they have obtained command over certain knowledge, abilities, and skills — is the five-point [school grading] system — which for all practical purposes, however, operates as a four-point system (see T. A. Ilina, Pedagogy [Pedagogika], Moscow, 1968, p. 364). (a) But the grades given by teachers do not always adequately reflect real pupil achievement, as practice and special studies have shown. This problem has been examined and elucidated from various standpoints by a number of investigators. In our study, we attempt to examine questions of the content, and alterations in the content, of an evaluation (scored in the five-point system), and its tie with the level of requirements made by the teacher in testing an...