"Hierarchical Student Evaluation Requires Paradigm Shift to 'Competency Assessment' and More"

Kim Jua of KEDI:
"Student Assessments Should Focus on Growth"
Calls for Shift to Competency-Based Evaluation and
Holistic Student Development

A study has emerged emphasizing that student assessments should focus on developing the individual 'competencies' of each student to prepare for changes in future society. Since the way students are assessed affects everything from lesson design to their learning experiences, the current hierarchical student evaluation system needs to change.

On the 27th, Senior Researcher Kim Jua presented "Paradigm Shift in Student Assessment for Future Education Innovation: Are High School Classes and Assessments in Korea Changing?" at the "1st Online Press Briefing" hosted by the Korea Educational Development Institute (KEDI), which contained these findings.

Researcher Kim selected six domestic high schools considering factors such as college entrance strategies (CSAT-focused vs. student record-focused), assessment systems (general curriculum vs. IB curriculum), and school location (urban vs. rural areas), and investigated the current state of student assessments. The results showed that the most powerful factor determining school classes and assessments was the "influence of external evaluations," represented by the CSAT. These classes and assessments also impacted students' learning patterns and growth.

In CSAT-focused schools, students tended to become accustomed to a "spoon-fed system" rather than independently contemplating problems, as they solved patterned questions, Kim analyzed. In student record-focused schools, students showed conflicts between "the real study they want" and "exam study."

In IB curriculum schools, students exhibited positive effects in terms of self-directedness, critical thinking development, and a collaborative learning culture. Notably, under the "absolute evaluation" system, students recognized each other not as competitors but as learning partners, helping one another.

Researcher Kim pointed out that the quantified assessment system and the competency-centered new educational paradigm form a structural tension. He said, "While creativity, critical thinking, and holistic competency development are emphasized in the curriculum, the college entrance system firmly builds sociocultural trust in quantified academic achievement and standardized assessment tools, showing conflicting patterns." He attributed this to the strong institutional inertia in our society.

Researcher Kim viewed that innovation across the entire educational goals and related areas is necessary to focus assessments on students' competencies.

He believed that to assess students as tools supporting individual growth and development rather than reducing them to simple scores or rankings, the quantitative indicator-centered college admission methods must be improved.

He explained that it is necessary to move away from exam score-centered quantitative selection methods and enable a holistic approach to evaluating students' competencies and potential.

Along with this, he suggested that the assessment system should be changed to an "absolute evaluation" based on achievement standards to promote students' competency enhancement. Researcher Kim said, "It is necessary to reconsider the policy of combining relative evaluation in student assessments so that students can set their learning goals and paths based on goals they need to achieve themselves, not compared to others, and provide students with a new framework for learning."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.