There are three different basic standards of reference for the assessment and marking of students’ performance:
- Individual criterion: the student’s present performance is compared with his or her previous work.
- Objective criterion: the student’s performance is compared with the learning objectives that have been defined.
- Social criterion: a student’s performance is compared with that of the students within the same class or the same age group.
Type of criterion |
Individual criterion |
Objective criterion |
Social criterion |
Reference figure | Learning progress | Learning objective | Normal curve of distribution, arithmetic average, deviation |
Information | How much has been learned between time 1 and time 2? | To what extent has the student approached the learning objective? | How big is the deviation of the individual progress from the average? |
Type of assessment | Tests, verbal assessment, learning progress report, structured form of observation | Goal-oriented test, learning progress report, structured form of observation | Test including a grade oriented on the average of the class |
Pedagogical implication |
Very high | Very high | Is often used for selection; is not important for orientation towards support for students |
Key Concepts :
Rules & Law