Of math without notes in Tours – the New Republic

A note, what grade? The new pedagogies emphasize “positive evaluation” of student competencies. Example Montaigne college in Tours.

The hands go up, the questions fuse, dialogue is the norm. In the Class 6 ^th Frédéric Marcadet, math teacher, delivery of copies is not a ceremony. Rather, it is a moment of exchange, during which students are associated with the correction of homework and testing their skills. Fini Note penalty, up to the “positive evaluation”!
“The idea is to separate the student in his grade. There is no judgment of the student, but an audit of skills he is supposed to have acquired at some point of the year “ said Frederic Marcadet.

“The student is an actor of evaluation”

The approach gives a vivid class rather than frozen pending the delivery of the copies. By seeking every time the participation of students, the professor first explains the table correcting various exercises of duty.
The copies are then distributed by some students, together with a corrected allocating every year a number of “success credits”, divided into four skill areas.
The college then assess their own success in exercises and calculate their number of credits. Finally, they submit their answers to the teacher, which checks the number of credits, then converted to a score of 18 by simple division.
Two potential points of continuous assessment (involvement in the process, progress) give a score out of 20. This is corrected – not copying – the students then submit the signature of the parents. “The assessment could even be done without note. What matters is the approach said the main school of Montaigne, Marie-Christine Sennegond. The important thing is that the student is an actor of its assessment, it may itself realize its performance and its evolution. This gives meaning to what he does. “
First manual, the evaluation system developed in 2009 by Frédéric Marcadet with a colleague, Sébastien Huguet, is now fully computerized, thus keeping all data illustrating the evolution of skills of each student. The method has been extended to almost all of college math courses.
“This practice evaluation is now installed in college , welcomes the main. It is explained to parents early in the year, and we have no particular feedback from the students. “ If this is some enthusiasm.