Turning realities of school assessment to students' advantage.

• Author: Lopez, Mark
• Position: The Little Black School Book, vol. 2 (Exams - Excerpt
• Pages: 58(8)

Most students hope for fair, rational, objective and accurate assessment for every paper they submit. However, to succeed continually in the education system, students need to adopt a more realistic understanding of what happens in it and then take the necessary steps to succeed in the light of this reality. In this extract from The Little Black School Book, Volume 2 (Exams), Dr Mark Lopez introduces students to a deeper understanding of assessment so they can succeed in any circumstance that they encounter.

The impact of context on assessment

Many people who are seeking to persuade others overlook the impact of context in shaping people's perceptions and opinions. Context shapes perception and therefore influences opinion. Put another way, I am referring to the way things can be perceived differently depending on the context in which they are encountered.

For example, a neat pile of bricks on the pavement is a neat pile of bricks on the pavement. But if it was placed in an art gallery, it can become a conceptual work of minimalist art. Alternatively, I once visited an art gallery where I saw a pile of chairs and boxes in the corner of a temporarily unused but open exhibition room. Interestingly, I noticed that a sign had been politely placed on the pile cautioning visitors that this was not an exhibit. It wasn't. It was simply a pile of chairs and boxes. However, because it was in an exhibition space some people had obviously gathered around it and discussed its merits as a work of art, hence the polite warning sign. Their mistake is a reminder of the power of context.

While at school, no matter how talented you may be, you are perceived as a student and your work is perceived as schoolwork, which means it is not perceived by your teachers in the same way as they would look at published material, especially that by well-known or renowned authors. When a teacher reads the work of a well-known or renowned author, especially one whose work is prescribed for study by higher educational authorities, he will often be intimidated by the text. He will feel obliged to look for the merit in this work even if this is not immediately apparent to him and it takes repeated efforts. If he does not understand its meaning, he will blame himself and feel inadequate. By contrast, if he does not understand the work of a student, he will blame the student, not himself. Moreover, without being aware that they are doing so, many teachers may go further and assume that there is nothing sophisticated or profound to find in student work, so they will be oblivious to the possibility of it being there. What they do not expect to see, of course, they do not see.

I would suggest that it is possible that if a lesser-known work of a renowned author was covertly submitted as student work to an unsuspecting teacher it may risk being awarded only a "C", while if a competent piece of student writing was published and first encountered by the teacher as a set text for study, the teacher would go out of his way to find merit in it and praise it to the utmost. What this teacher would have done if he first encountered this student's work as schoolwork would be another matter.

One of my very capable year 12 students who was doing legal studies had been taught a profound legal argument by his father, who was a distinguished magistrate, to aid him in completing an assignment. Despite the impressive quality of this material, it was not appreciated by the teacher. However, I would suggest that if this student's father had visited his son's school as a guest lecturer, his legal studies teacher would have enthusiastically taken note of every word of the same material, had it come from the mouth of a magistrate and not first been seen in a student's assignment. For many accomplished parents who have helped their talented children with their homework, now you may have a greater understanding why the results may not have been what you both hoped for.

One of the most frustrating dimensions of my work as a private tutor has been to help talented students to produce some sophisticated writing or analysis only to see it misunderstood, unappreciated and inadequately rewarded by the teacher. What was sad for me was sadder for my students. However, there are means to fight back, and we do. Talented students may need to adjust their expectations regarding the degree of recognition they can receive in the context of school assignments and exams. They may either "dumb down" their work or simply conform to the stereotypes that teachers prefer to reward almost without thinking, which are the easier options; or they can attempt to change the context in which their work is perceived, which is the trickier option.

Provided your...