Education has been keenly debated in Sweden during the past decade and finally the new new government (the Centre-Right Alliance) applied several reforms, one of them in the educational field. They concluded to introduce a new grading system in Sweden in August 2009. Instead of grading with the grades MVG, VG, G and IG starting in grade 8, there will be a 7-step grading system and students will be graded from grade 6, which means official evaluation will begin two years earlier. All in all I definitely agree with this new grading system.
To be honest before coming to Sweden I had no idea about this issue, but since February I am collaborating with a Swedish Primary School in teaching Spanish so I know a bit more in relation to this new Political-Educational reform. The first day in that school I was so interested in knowing how the learning system works in general and after getting the basic information I got a shock. The late grading system which prevailed until the moment absolutely surprised me. Maybe it is because I come from a country where the pupils are evaluated since the third year that I cannot understand how children can be without any kind of formal evaluation until the eighth year, this is merely unbelievable for me.
So for me the educational reform is something I really agree with, since I think grades in earlier time are necessary. There are several reasons behind my opinion.
First of all my view is probably based on my own experience. When I was a child, I was always focused on getting the best marks, and for me this should be the goal in school. Thanks to grades children can feel the pressure and importance of studying and thus doing their best. Besides this way they can experience that going to school is something formal and serious, not just a game. In fact by being graded studying becomes a challenge for students. Maybe at that age it is difficult to figure out how this could help you in the future, but actually it does. So at this point it is clear that grades prepare you in some way for the future, where it is our task to survive in a world of challenge and individualism.
In addition the Swedish National Agency for Education recommends currently formal school reports from year five, however according to my Spanish point of view I would recommend from year three, seeing as it can be profitable in anyways.
As a conclusion as I explained above the introduction of this educational reform will bring better results in this field since the Swedish students will feel the pressure of studying. In the whole grades will provide an incentive to the students. Moreover I think the Swedish government will extend these grades to earlier ages as a consequence of the good results and general acceptation.
Content and structure:
ReplyDeleteI like the way you've applied an explicitly Spanish point of view to this issue - it makes your text very interesting to read. I also like the introduction. It gives all the necessary background information and ends in a clear and precsie thesis statement. The conclusion links back to the introduction very neatly - well done!
On the downside, you need to integrate paragraph 2 ("To be honest before coming to Sweden...") better. Right now, it is not entirely clear that it is a necessary paragraph. Link it to the thesis statement!
Paragraph 3 is a reiteration of the thesis statement, and not really an argument at all - is it necessary?
Language:
Your language is very good. This comes across in all your blogs, as well as in your peer feedback comments. You could perhaps take more care to avoid comma splices (final sentence, paragraph 2). However, you're in luck: we're actually going to talk about comma splices in class today.
If I were you, I would also try to use a few more commas after sentence-initial long adverbials ("First of all, ..." etc). This isn't entirely necessary, but it helps the reader break up the sentence into more manageable chunks.
On the whole, well done!
/Teacher
Content and structure: You make it very clear what your opinion is in this matter, that’s really good. You start with it and you end the blog with it, easy to read. I like how you compare Sweden and Spain; it gives the text a wider prospect.
ReplyDeleteLanguage: The language is good, but some of the sentences could maybe be a little bit shorter.
We absolutely have different opinions and it was interesting reading your point of view!
Keep up the good work!
//Lina