Letter grading assessment system: A narrative analysis of secondary level students

Abstract

The study was conducted with the aim to analyze the students’ perceptions about letter grades and to find out the effects for mathematics learning of secondary level students in Chitwan. Here, I tried to explore students’ perception about letter grading and its impact on mathematics learning. A narrative research design was adopted to explore the possibilities of the problem about letter grades and its effect in mathematics learning. Four students were taken to gather the information in which two were SLC graduates and two were the students of grade 10. In depth semi structured interviews were applied to capture the perception of students’. The recorded interview were presented in narrative way and analyzed by considering theory. Multiple layers of thematic analysis and interpretation of letter grading assessment were associated with ‘not exact scoring’, ‘reducing anxiety of examination’, ‘negative effect on mathematics learning’ and ‘locally rejected globally accepted’. Findings of the research shows that students had mixed attitude about letter grading system they said securing marks refers to their grades and the examination rigor was lessened. Most of the students said that the letter grades have negative effect in mathematics learning. However, the studies show that letter-grading system has reduced the negative effects of previous numbering system like high suicide rate, school dropouts etc. This is a progressive step to increase literacy rate in Nepal.