The ManicaPost
Shelton Mwanyisa
Emerging Issues in Education
The awarding of marks in Continuous Assessment Learning Activities (CALAs) is a contested terrain.
This is largely caused by the fact that some CALAs, especially practical and essay types, are subjective.
In the process of marking, learners work with teachers who are expected to adhere to the ethical principles that guide the marking process.
The principles are important in reducing subjectivity.
The principles include being objective, fair, quick feedback, reliability, and consistency.
This week we explore the process of marking CALAs.
A mark is the equivalence if a pupil’s performance.
Marks can be numerical, symbols or percentages.
It is the process of awarding learners scores that relate to their performance in activities assigned to them.
Therefore, marking can be seen as the process of providing feedback to work done by learners.
Marking has perhaps too often been regarded as synonymous with correcting, as if the teacher’s task was to provide the learner with a complete “correct” version.
Objectivity
One of the principles that to be considered when marking is objectivity.
In order to ensure objective marking, the teacher should set objective questions for the learners.
The objective questions are free from bias.
It therefore implies that the teacher should focus on the correct answer and nothing else when marking.
Clarity
Learners are motivated towards learning when marking has the best chance of playing a formative role when it is applied to a task directly related to the preceding teaching and learning process.
For marking to be meaningful, the parameters of the CALA need to be clear and applicable to all learners, depending on the task, this involves setting word or time limits, and possibly requiring all learners to cover a present number of steps or points.
Fairness
The teacher should be consistent in errors made by the learners.
There is need to be fair when marking and correcting wrong answers.
If a learner is penalised for wrong spelling, then all learners who fail the spelling must also be penalised in the same way.
Fairness is important in reducing bias as well as favouritism.
Consistence
Furthermore, the teacher should apply the principle of consistency.
All teachers remind their learners to check their work before handing it in.
Providing early feedback, at intermediate stages in the learning process, is important in marking.
The teacher expectations are not supposed to change during the marking process.
The principle of consistency will help the learner to gradually learn to implement corrections independent of the teacher.
Teachers should not expect to see and mark everything written, over-marking can be bad for the learner.
Marking is not the same as proof-reading.
When marking, the teacher should always consider, for each learner, how much feedback is expressed in which forms.
Marking exists for the benefit of the learner; for the teacher, it is an opportunity for giving confidential one-on-one feedback.
Criteria
In the process of awarding points and converting points to marks and grades, the teacher is applying the marking scheme fairly to all learners’ work.
Only through written comments on a piece of work can the teacher put each learner’s individual needs.
The criteria for marking will relate to the number of factors.
Avoidance
The marking process in teaching is not solely or even primarily concerned with the avoidance of error; the teacher’s principal role is to provide situations, opportunities and motivation for all learners to stretch their linguistic and socio-cultural range and proficiency.
In so doing, learners will inevitably make errors, only some of which should be highlighted by the teacher for the learner, and in some cases made the object of further class explanation, demonstration and practice.
This means some errors made by some learners may be ignored to avoid discouraging them.
Possible variations include, separately or in combination: marking a piece of work to indicate where there are errors, without showing, in words or symbols, the nature of the error; setting learners to hand in a revised version of their work for assessment; setting the rewriting task to be done, individually or in pairs, in class or before the next class.
Finally all the principles of marking discussed are interdependent and interconnected.
There is no principle that is more important that the other.
I hope the marking of subjective CALAs can be improved if these principles are applied.
