The Study of the Interrelation of Learners’ Personal Qualities and Their Attitude to the school Grade

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 1180-1184

J. Environ. Treat. Tech.

ISSN: 2309-1185

Journal web link: http://www.jett.dormaj.com

The Study of the Interrelation of Learners’

Personal Qualities and Their Attitude to the school

Grade

Tatiana V. Mayasova *, Oksana V. Kolesova , Elena G. Gutsu , Nadezhda N. Demeneva ,

Elena V. Kochetova , Elena B. Aksienova , Elena B. Sinova

Department of Human Physiology and Safety, Minin Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Department of Psychophysiology, National Research Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Department of Psychology and Pedagogy of Preschool and Primary Education, Minin Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University, Nizhny

Novgorod, Russia

Department of Correctional Pedagogy and Special Psychology, Nizhny Novgorod Institute of the Education Development, Russia

Received: 05/08/2019

Accepted: 20/11/2019

Published: 20/12/2019

Abstract

The relevance of the problem under consideration is determined by necessity to aware the role of the school grade in educational

process, phsychological conditions in the development of students’ attitude to the grade as a sign of positive performance in the

course their studies. Assessment, to a certain extent, is a complicated and deep process that includes not only registration of

quantitative and qualitative indicators of the knowledge accumulated over the school years but also the ability to implement it in

practice. Besides, assessment implies student activity, aspiration for learning, as well as motivation to study. The purpose of the study

is to reveal the relationship between learners’ attitude of different educational levels to the school grade and their personal qualities.

The key method of the research is empirical revealing the correlation of students’ attitude of different age groups to school marks,

their personal qualities and anxiety level. The result of the research work proved the existence of quantitative differences in the ideas

of students of different age groups about school grades, their understanding of the essence of estimating process at school. Besides,

some significant interrelations between learners’ attitude to school grades and their personal features and anxiety level were revealed.

The conducted study of psychological features of students’ attitude to school assessment has stated an urgent necessity of greater

attention from the part of teachers and psychologists to the problem of giving marks and has justified the relevance to work out and

introduce renewed criteria of school assessment.

Keywords: Assessment, assessing process, school grade, subjective attitude, personal significance, the outer component of a mark,

the inner component of a mark, anxiety, personal features

Introduction¹

standards, while assessment is a characteristic of results of an

undertaken activity achieved in the process of learning (4).

The problem of assessment is in the focus of attention

and is constantly discussed in pedagogical and psychological

literature (2,4,6,28). On the one hand, the grade is part and

parcel in an assessing effective activity, but on the other

hand, it does not reflect quality of the learning process and

can often perform a negative effect on children’s cognitive

work (11, 24).

Traditionally one of the most topical problems of school

training is the problem of formation of study motivation of

learners where one of the impulses to get knowledge is

assessment and a mark (3). One can’t exaggerate the fact

saying that this current issue has still remained a burning

pedagogical problem. The notions “grade” and “assessment”

are basically different: the grade, or mark is an indicator of a

learner’s knowledge, its level, established by the national

From the very beginning of schooling a child has to

endure pressure of the mark as it hasn’t been a simple figure

indicating the quality of a performed work, but has turned

into a self-target (27, 32). And how a child worked, moved to

the target, what knowledge he got, how he learnt and used all

this in practice have lost its significance. Suffice it to mention

L.S. Vyigotskiy (25), once he noticed that the mark was so

allien to the learning process that it began to dominate over

Correspondinh author: Tatiana V. Mayasova, (a)

Department of Human Physiology and Safety, Minin Nizhny

Novgorod State Pedagogical University, Nizhny Novgorod,

Russia. (b) Department of Psychophysiology, National

Research Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod,

Russia. Email: vip.mayasova@mail.ru.

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Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 1180-1184

the whole studying and even ruined the cognitive work. As

the result, a child begins to study for the sake of a good

grade, not for getting knowledge (6). Psychological effect is

aggravated by the fact that teachers are often unaware of how

this or that student responds to a mark and how it affects

his\her personal qualities (28-30).

because children due to their age, can’t fully aware of the

criteria of assessing knowledge; thus they, to a greater extent,

orient themselves to an outer component of the grade (8).

Results and Discussions

In the above studies it was shown that on the beginner

The works of the researchers on the history of the grade

level younger learners’ curiosity, their direct interest to the

surrounding as well as desire to perform socially important

jobs determine their positive attitude to studies and,

consequently, their emotional experience regarding

assessment (17). That is why student lag, bad marks can often

hurt feelings, even drive students of this age to tears.

Moreover, primary school students lay special emphasis on

their intellectual abilities and on how they are evaluated by

other people (26). And what is more, the children of this age

group are longing for acknowledgement; it’s highly important

for them that a good mark should be recognized and approved

by all (18).

The study of the peculiarities was conducted with the

method of child adapted by E.M. Alexandrovskaya and I.N.

Gilyasheva (1) 12 FLO-120 and teenage form 14 PF variant

of person’s questionnaire child and teenage versions. As the

given variants differ in number of the scales and age

standards, we made up our minds to remain only those scales

which were presented in both versions without running a raw

score analysis but by using wall values. The study of anxiety

was made through the method of A.M. Prokhizhan “The scale

of a personal anxiety”. The results of the correlation analysis

with the use of non-parametric criterion made up by Spirmen

(

4) show that despite some attempts to abolish the mark

system to assess knowledge, in Russian Pedagogy a more

precise, reasonable and adequate way to evaluate results of

students’ work hasn’t been found yet. At present, the school

mark is not only a measure of learning school programs, but

also it has a great impact on the emotional sphere of a child at

school, as well as his self-estimation (23, 31, 33).

There comes a logical question: to what extent does the

system of assessment affect modern children and how

important is it for students to develop the ability to estimate

acquired knowledge and understand the school grade as a

result indicator of their learning activity? (12). The analysis

of psychology-pedagogy literature and my own experience

proves, without controversy, the existence of a close relation

between successes achieved in learning and formation of a

learner’s personality (5, 20).

Nevertheless, each age group is influenced by grades in

different ways. That’s why the aim of the study is to find out

the correlation between the attitude of students on different

educational levels to school grades and their personal

qualities. We suppose that there is relationship between

students’ personal features and their attitude to school marks.

(19) aimed at finding relationships between learners’ attitude

Materials and Methods

In the course of the study the following methods were

to school marks, their personal features and anxiety level are

presented in Table 2.

used: theoretical (analysis; synthesis; concretization;

generalization); empiric and diagnostic (the use of child

adapted by E.M. Alexandrovskaya and I.N. Gilyasheva (1) 12

FLO-120 and teenage form 14 PF variant of person’s

questionnaire; the test “The scale of person’s anxiety” of

A.M. Prikhozhan (16) and the modified questionnaire of I.B.

Umniashova (22) “The grade as learners see it”); methods of

math statistics. All sample of the research: 180 students

harmonized by sex (90 males and 90 females) took part in the

study. All the tested, aged 9-17, study in the same secondary

school. 60 students are doing in primary school (3-4 classes),

The situation starts to acquire another turn later, with

years, in junior school, when personal value of grades is

growing due to awareness that the mark does not rate a

student, as an individual but the result of a job he did (15).

Sh.A. Amonashvili remarked the decline of the status role of

grades in junior school which is manifested in a formal

attitude to marks (2). Graduates’ attitude to the school marks

is basically determined by their professional views (plans).

Because of this, they begin to see school subjects from the

view point of their future profession and consequently, they

start to differentiate marks they have. If they get a bad mark

in a subject which is out of their professional interests, the

attitude to them will be quieter than in necessary disciplines

(5). Based on the data in Table 2 we may come to conclusion

stating that between the attitude to the grade, psychological

qualities and anxiety level there are authentic correlations.

The answers to question 2 “Do you find your marks

unfair?” and the index “Anxiety and big concern” - scale O

(r=0,384; p≤0,05). To our minds it may point to the fact that

learners are rather inclined to see unfavorable sides of

assessment, a small involvement of a teacher in the process,

his\her subjectivity. The aim of assessment should be the

formation of feedback between the student and the teacher,

possibility to motivate learners, develop such qualities as

desire to learn, the ability to self-improve, analise and

estimate their own performance, encourage cognitive activity

(21).

0 are on the middle stage (8-9classes) and 60 are high

school students (10-11 classes). To study the peculiarities of

attitude of the pupils from different classes to grades we used

the modified version of the questionnaire “The mark as

school learners see it” worked out by I.B. Umniashova (22).

The results of the questioning “The mark as school learners

see it” are presented in table 1.

The analysis of the results given in table 1, states that

school students’ attitude to the grade is different in different

groups. Practically all the testees admitted that a school grade

is necessary for assessing knowledge. In most cases they

agree with the given marks, and a negative result (a bad

grade) can be explained by their insufficient homework (14).

Besides, on each age stage their attitude to school grades is

changing. For example, primary school students orient

themselves mostly to their parents’ or teachers’ opinions,

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Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 1180-1184

Table 1: The peculiarities of attitude to grades of all the participants of training process (number of people %)

Question

Answers

Classes

-4

-9

А.

0-11

100

All sample

100

8-9

-4

0-11

All sample

8-9

-4

0-11

All sample

8-9

-4

0-11

All sample

-4

8-9

0-11

All sample

Remark: Question A “Why is the school grade necessary?” (variants for answers: 1- to define knowledge, 2- to do your best to develop, 3 – to do

homework, 4 - to find a best student, 5 – to please parents, 6 – to compare your results with the rest students). Question B. “Do you find your mark

unfair?” (variants for answers: 1 – I never have such problems, 2 – the teacher underestimates me, 3 – the teachers are not attentive to my answers 4 –

the teacher has got favorite students). Question C “Why do a student get a bad mark?” (variants of answers: 1 – did homework badly, 2 – is going to

be late for classes, 3 – does not want to do an assignment , 4 – has bad mood, 5 – his behavior made the teacher angry). Question D “Why do students

want to get good marks?” (variants for answers: 1 – This is an indicator of good knowledge, 2 – it’s a pleasure for yourselves, 3 – parents will be

delighted, 4 – the teacher will praise you, 5 – the classmates will respect you, 6 – will get a present). Question E “What do you hate when you get a

bad mark?” (variants for answers: 1 – I am hurt, 2- it doesn’t matter for me, 3 – I will be punished, 4 – parents will be called to the director )

Table 2: Correlation of the attitude of students from different classes to the school mark, the anxiety level and their personal qualities

Test indicators

SeA

,668

,102

МA

A.”Why is the

school grade

necessary ?”

,485

,643

-,648

,138

-,302

-,464

-,581

-,518

-,539

-,040

B.”Do you find

your marks unfair?”

C.”Why do

students get bad

marks?’

D.”Why do

students want to get ,665

good marks?”

050

,135

,050

,147

,176

-,010

-,134

,011

,041

,157

,035

,027

,086

,384

,082

-,151

-,438

-,453

-,212

-,105

-,114

-,039

-,070

-,030

-,125

-,316

-,485

,365

-,192

-,073

-,319

-,595

-,414

-,278

-,316

-,419

-,468

,173

E.”What do you

dislike when you

,606

,175

-,249

,395

get bad marks?”

Remark: SA – school anxiety; SA- self-evaluative anxiety; IA – interpersonal anxiety; MA – magical anxiety

The black type shows statistic important correlation relations: * - meaningful correlation elations on the level p≤0,05; ** - correlation relation on

the level p≤0,01.

)

The grade should be used as a means to prompt

The answers to question 3 “Why do students want

the student for an active job that is, to use the mark as an

impulse, stimulus. Besides, the impact of the grade works

well in case a student can rely on his teacher when the

personality of a teacher, his expectations, general positioning,

style to communicate with the class, ability to create the

atmosphere of psychological comfort play a decisive role

to get good marks?” and the following indexes: school

anxiety (r=0,643; p≤0,01) and magical anxiety (r=0,365;

p≤0,05 ). The results show students’ determination to work

hard and effectively to get good grades during frontal work in

the class and at tests what makes students feel anxious for the

final result. Though often, especially younger students relate

(

13).

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Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2019, Special Issue on Environment, Management and Economy, Pages: 1180-1184

a good mark with favorable circumstances and magical

forces;

independent” – scale E (r=-0,316;p≤0,05),“tend to be risky,

careless” – scale F (r=-0,468; p≤0,01).

)

The answers to question 4 “What do you hate

The received data show that the more the process of

assessing acquires personal significance for learners, the less

interpersonal anxiety they have to endure, as they stop to be

dependent on outer circumstances while being assessed and

can rely on their own efforts to receive a desired positive

assessment. Such attitude to assessing process leads to

reduction of formation of the qualities – independence, self-

confidence, carelessness.

Thus, based on the conducted correlation analysis we can

safely conclude that there exist considerable relationships

between attitude of students of different age stages to the

school grade, learners’ personal anxiety level as well as some

personal features of theirs.

when you get a bad mark?” and the following indexes school

anxiety (r=0,606; p ≤0,01) and the personal features “good

faith and diligence” – scale G (r =0,395; p≤0,05). The data

testify the fact that the more the students fear poor grades and

punishment for them, the more they get frustrated and

anxious. Though, it should be mentioned, in this case the

features “good faith and diligence” are growing as children

tend to do their best to avoid censure. Many researchers

remark that some students are often afraid to fall short of

people’s expectations; they may feel anxious about self-

expressing or before their teacher (9). The biggest fear at

school is fear of a situation before control works (7). If a

student constantly gets a poor mark, the experienced failure

leads to the lost of self-confidence and due to this, a low level

of claims is growing. The chain of the consequences may end

with forming negative attitude to study and the desire to learn

is vanishing (10).

4 Conclusions

The conducted research of the psychological features of

student’ attitude to the school grade allows us to make

conclusion about the necessity of a great attention of school

teachers to the problem of assessing. There are three urgent

questions to be solved: -How should learning be evaluated at

school? - What kind of assessment must it be? – What place

must the grade take in the system of education?

The results of correlation analysis, given in table 2 allows

us to reveal the negative correlations between:

)

The answers to question 1 of the questionnaire

“

Why is the school grade necessary?” and the following

indexes: interpersonal anxiety (r=-0,648; p≤0,01), general

anxiety level (r=-0,302; p≤0,05), and also such personal

features as “openness, good will” - scale A (r=-0,464;

p<_0,01), “self-confidence, stability” –scale C (r=-0,581;

p≤0,01), “Dominating, independent” – scale E (r=-0,518;

p≤0,01), “Tend to be risky, careless” – scale F (r=-0,539;

p≤0,01). The data may point to the fact that if students see a

mark as a variant of an indicator of their knowledge, the

interpersonal and general anxiety levels decrease. This

phenomenon might be connected with the assurance – if they

get enough knowledge, they will have a good grade – thus,

there is no reason to worry, no one can condemn or criticize

and their personal relationships will not go bad. Though,

attitude to assessment at school as a determination of

knowledge does not welcome the formation of openness,

stability, independence and carelessness, because it involves

We consider it sensible to refuse the traditional practice

of assessing when the function of the grade is assigned to

teachers and psychologists. The student should get involved

in the process. Only then we will be able to form valuation

activity of learners and develop objective self- assessment of

the results. Such objective self-assessment must take into

consideration the previous child’s achievements and it must

be based on them. A student should learn to compare “what I

could” and “what I achieved”, “how I have changed making

progress”. It’s the result of a change that ought to be the basis

of knowledge assessment and become a grade for knowledge

in the final version. Only in this case a school mark will

encourage study interest of a child, creating psychologically

comfortable atmosphere, without causing negative personal

changes and raising anxiety level of the child.

certain rivalry, subjective judgements and constant

readiness to be assessed.

The answers to question 4 “Why do students want

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