Novara: stop voting. A number is nothing, it is an institutionalized misunderstanding and the questions are asked out of inertia

The pedagogist Daniele Novara recently concluded a conference in Piacenza with a thousand teachers with a significant title: “School is not a competition“. An appeal was launched from the event, which has already collected 9 thousand signatures: “At school we must feel good even in the effort of learning. Feeling well is the only condition to succeed”, this is the concept expressed by the expert.

“The kids don’t consider the numerical grade an element of evaluation, for them the grade doesn’t coincide with what they think they’re worth. It’s a short circuit compared to their potential, it doesn’t represent what they are, the boys are right about this. The numerical evaluation crystallizes and creates anxiety,” he said Novara to The Republic.

Here are other statements to support his thesis: “Abolishing the grade as a number means moving away from a school system made up of questions, classwork, homework, notes. A terminology that we use as if it were scientific while it has no pedagogical basis. In middle school, then, it doesn’t even have a normative response. The questioning is an inertial procedure whose scientific and pedagogical basis is unknown. It’s as if in a hospital I continued to only do x-rays instead of magnetic resonance imaging because that was once done. The school needs a radical change in the face of this generation of students.”

“Be careful, a school without grades does not mean a school without evaluation. Evaluation is a right that must consider the evolution of the school path and be based on the characteristics of each student. Grades crystallize a single moment, whereas an evolutionary evaluation is able to consider the entire process. The feedback must be narrative, a teacher must explain to the student what she is doing, what progress she has made. In high school the legislation on the mathematical average persists which, among other things, parents rely on. If you get a 2 or a 3 at the beginning of the second quarter according to the average you’re done for. What does this sort of crystallization of judgment in a number give? What does a 3 or a 4 mean or what is the difference between a 3 and a 5? And is five and a half or six minus minus enough or not? A number does not clarify anything about a student’s learning and growth, it is an institutionalized misunderstanding.”

“School is not a sporting competition where in the end there is a winner, at school everyone must win. My suggestion is to give an evaluation at the end of the year based on the progress a student will make: schools can already suspend intermediate report cards. The mess of a continuous and systematic task must be avoided. We are moving beyond a school now dominated by the dimension of control and judgement, which hinders the creation of true motivation towards training and learning. To feel good at school you need to get away from frontal methods and passive listening and develop the sense of a social school where learning is not a strictly individual commitment”.

“A school where sharing work is done and where the socio-affective process of belonging to the class group is supported. Teachers must be supported in their ability to make the class and work groups work so that students can feel good. You have to work on welcoming and building relationships. Kids love challenges, not being pigeonholed into grading. A school challenge doesn’t mean you have to pass a 3, but maybe understand how to write a collective letter to the mayor about the pollution in your city.”

“The figure of the teacher is central, but it must be as a maieutic figure, not ex cathedra. I mean a teacher who knows how to see beyond the grade the substance and potential of each student. A huge game is being played on this, there are many quality teachers, they must be supported.”

“I insist on the fact that the fragility of these kids is not genetic, but neurophysiological. I don’t share a psychiatric idea of ​​our kids, who have a higher IQ than past generations and lead a healthier life. What needs to be done is to focus on educational prevention by helping parents, this is the real emergency. Let’s go back to making educational projects for parents, this would help the school.”