This article analyzes the main criteria for the quality of essay writing in foreign and domestic literature. The main types of classification of criteria for assessing the quality of essay writing were systematized and determined. Today, the student's essay writing is very relevant because it is one of the tools to evaluate his knowledge, skills and competence.
Keywords: essay, assessment, scale, competence, quality, pedagogy.
В этой статье проанализированы основные критерии качества написания эссе в зарубежных и отечественных литературах. Было систематизировано и определено основные виды классификации критериев оценки качества написания эссе. На сегодняшний день владение студентами грамотного написания эссе считается актуальным так-как является одним из оценочных инструментов его знаний, навыков и компетенции.
Ключевые слова: эссе, оценивание, шкала, компетенция, качество, педагогика.
The Head of State, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in his messages to the people of Kazakhstan defines education as a long-term priority goal and strategy for the development of human capital of the republic and also notes that the primary task of the modern education system is to ensure the improvement of the quality of higher education, the training of highly qualified personnel with critical thinking and able to navigate information flows. The strategic goal of the country is to strengthen its leading role in Central Asia and strengthen its position in the global economy [1].
Modern trends in the organization of the educational process, legislative and regulatory documents concerning the action plan for the implementation of the State Program for the Development of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the provisions of the Bologna Declaration require the expansion of innovative activities to improve, plan and strengthen the role of independent work of students, the implementation of which should be appropriately monitored. In this regard, there is a need to search for such forms of monitoring the level of educational achievements of students that would be appropriate, effective, activating the educational process and objective.
One of such rather effective methods of control and verification of students' knowledge of a high order is an essay, which is aimed at activating educational and cognitive activity, increasing interest in the specialty, developing creativity and productive, critical thinking of students [2].
The main purpose of the essay is to diagnose the productive, creative component of students' cognitive activity, which involves the analysis of information, its interpretation, the construction of reasoning based on the laws of pedagogical science, comparison of facts, approaches and alternatives, the formulation of reasoned conclusions, the expression of a subjective assessment of the subject of reasoning [2].
The relevance of this topic is also acquired by the fact that in modern conditions not all students of higher educational institutions have the skills to write an essay.
Writing an essay is extremely useful because it allows the author to learn how to formulate thoughts clearly and competently, structure information, use the main categories of analysis, identify cause-and-effect relationships, illustrate concepts with appropriate examples, argue their conclusions; master the scientific style of speech. The essay should contain: a clear statement of the essence of the problem posed, include an independently conducted analysis of this problem using concepts and analytical tools considered within the discipline, conclusions summarizing the author's position on the problem posed. Depending on the specifics of the discipline, the essay forms can be significantly differentiated. In some cases, this may be an analysis of available statistical data on the problem under study, an analysis of materials from the media and the use of the studied models, a detailed analysis of the proposed problem with detailed opinions, selection and detailed analysis of examples illustrating the problem, etc. [3].
Unfortunately, until now, the use of essays as a method of checking students' achievements has not yet become widespread in teaching pedagogical disciplines. The teacher's possession of competencies for assessing the quality of essay writing is also of great importance for today. According to the results of our analysis of literary sources, the assessment of the correctness of writing an essay according to different authors is carried out according to various quality criteria.
According to D. A. Makhotin, the criteria for evaluating essays on pedagogy can be the following: the presence of a competent, detailed answer to the question posed; possession of pedagogical concepts and terms; clear and logically consistent composition; bringing arguments, examples, quotations, the use of illustrative material; the ability to think independently, purposefully analyze the material and compare facts without distorting to draw conclusions and generalizations; clearly and vividly express their point of view, their personal attitude to the problem.
Summarizing various criteria for evaluating essays as a form of independent creative work of students, D. A. Makhotin identifies the following:
– knowledge and understanding of educational material;
– analysis and evaluation of information;
– the logic of constructing judgments [2].
According to other literary sources in general, based on the evaluation criteria, we can say that, in addition to the design of the work, the evaluation takes into account such criteria as: adequate goal setting, understanding of the selected theoretical material, adequacy and relevance of argumentation (correctness of judgments and adequacy of the selected logical methods), the presence and relevance of factual examples. The essay is evaluated on a 10-point scale. The maximum number of points a student can get in this way is 10 [4].
Writing an essay in Russian at Kazan Federal University is evaluated according to the following criteria:
– Formulation of the problems of the source text;
– Comment on the formulated problem of the source text;
– Reflection of the position of the author of the source text;
– Argumentation of one's own opinion on the problem;
– Speech design of the composition, semantic integrity, speech coherence and sequence of presentation;
– Accuracy and expressiveness of speech;
– Literacy. Compliance with spelling norms;
– Compliance with punctuation standards;
– Compliance with language, speech and ethical standards;
Compliance with factual accuracy in the background material [5].
Based on the above evaluation criteria at Kazan Federal University, it can be concluded that a very important condition before writing an essay by students is to familiarize them with the essay evaluation criteria.
The difficulty of checking and evaluating an essay in English is that the approach to evaluation should be objective [6], i.e. a comprehensive approach to evaluation should be implemented, therefore, when evaluating an academic essay in English at the Don State Technical University, the following scale of criteria was developed:
- Content (Correspondence of the content of the essay on the stated topic);
- Structuring (The method of presentation of the material is clear, effective and interesting);
- The style of work and the manner of presentation of the material (Compliance with the standards of style in the essay);
- Vocabulary (precise and diverse choice of words);
- Grammar (Adequate use of grammar according to the rules of the English language);
- Spelling and punctuation (Compliance with the rules of punctuation and spelling) [7].
In order to assess the current state of application of the criterion assessment of essay writing in Kazakhstan, which is actually implemented at the Faculty of Philology and Pedagogy of Kokshetau State University named after Sh.Ualikhanov, a sociological survey was conducted among teachers. According to the teachers of Kokshetau State University, the most effective criteria for assessing the quality of essay writing are:
– Argumentation and conclusion
– Style and literacy
– Logic, consistency of presentation of thoughts
– Understanding of the subject and attitude to it
– Structure and organization of the text [8].
Originality, first of all, lies in a bright and strong thesis. The thesis should consist of one sentence and include, firstly, the topic of the essay, and secondly, the opinion is a challenge, when reading which there is a desire to challenge it. A weaker thesis simply states the purpose of writing an essay, describes a problem, or is presented not as a statement, but as a question. It is advisable to check the text for plagiarism, since it is important for the student to be able to state the main provisions only in his own words, and quotes, facts, etc. must be supported by a reference to the source [9].
The world has accumulated positive experience in the application of criteria for assessing the quality of essay writing in pedagogical practice. In the Republic of Kazakhstan, this tool for evaluating educational activities is used with the introduction of the Bologna Process. At the same time, in the domestic literature, data on the criteria for assessing the quality of essay writing, including methods for assessing the quality of essay writing, are of a single nature. Writing an essay is one of the important ways to monitor a student's competence.
References:
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