VTsIOM: Unified State Exam can become a “social elevator” for Novosibirsk schoolchildren

As part of a large-scale project dedicated to the Unified State Examination (USE), the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) conducted a number of qualitative studies (focus groups in Moscow and Novosibirsk), which helped to identify the deep attitudes of teachers, graduates and their parents regarding the USE. VTsIOM published the results of Novosibirsk research.

As follows from the message of the center, the participants of the focus groups held in Novosibirsk note that the USE opens up new opportunities:

1) firstly, the USE can become a "social lift". Participants acknowledge that the unified state exam equalizes the chances of admission for children from different social strata. After the introduction of the Unified State Examination, the main criterion for passing the exam is knowledge, and not the material possibilities of access to highly qualified teachers, mainly from the selection committees of universities. Focus group participants believe that now any graduate who has mastered the school curriculum can score high and, therefore, easily enter a prestigious university, regardless of its location.

2) secondly, it greatly facilitates the procedure for entering the country's universities (subjective factors are neutralized when passing entrance exams, it makes it possible to enter several universities "at one time", there is no need for significant material costs to travel to the city where the university is located, etc. .P.)

It also confirmed the thesis obtained during the Moscow focus groups that schoolchildren who rely on their own knowledge are calmer about the upcoming change in the form of knowledge testing than those who counted on the opportunity to influence the assessment by “paying for it”.

In addition, it is obvious that the supporters of the USE most often turn out to be:

1) guys who are confident in their knowledge and ready for written forms of performance assessment

2) parents who consider this procedure more psychologically comfortable due to the fact that the exam is taken only once, and is counted immediately for both graduation and entrance

3) teachers who are well acquainted with the procedure for passing the USE and who believe that a single exam allows an objective assessment of a graduate's knowledge throughout the entire curriculum.

Opponents of the exam are, as a rule:

1) incompletely informed adults and schoolchildren about the USE, demonstrating stereotypes based on spontaneously obtained information from the media

2) graduates psychologically unprepared for the written form of knowledge assessment

“The study conducted in Novosibirsk also confirmed that the focus on incomplete and / or false information about the Unified State Examination (obtained from the yellow press, chats and rumors), as well as the influence of adult phobias, have a negative impact on graduates,” VTsIOM employees note. “In the case of more reliable coverage of the procedure for passing and the content of the Unified State Examination (especially in the regions), a decrease in the level of situational anxiety among emotionally unstable schoolchildren is expected.”

Reference

TAIGI.info:

The VTsIOM initiative research took place on May 4-6, 2009 in Novosibirsk. Focus groups were held with students in grades 9 and 11, with parents of students in grades 9-11, teachers and heads of educational units (teaching both compulsory subjects and optional subjects).