G. Felouzis, EVALUATION AND TEACHING EFFICIENCY IN SEC ONDARY-SCHOOL TEACHING - THE CASE OF MATHEMATICS, Revue Francaise de Sociologie, 37(1), 1996, pp. 77
This article aims to evaluate and analyse the degree of efficiency in
secondary school teaching based on a survey carried out in 36 classes
of ''seconde'' maths (fifth year). The first result concerns the ''tea
cher effect'' : when comparing the performance of students on common e
xercises (between groups of equal age, level of education, sex and soc
ial background) there was found to be a large discrepancy depending on
the class and the teacher (the marks varied from 5 to 20 in the more
extreme examples). This difference is analysed as the result of the ''
expectation effect'', in other words, the sort of mark that will be aw
arded for the exercise. There are two main results: The marks awarded
to the pupil are not always based on their real performance but accord
ing to the teacher's marking habits. more or less generous. When all f
actors (initial level, age, sex, social background) are equal the more
generous marking habits imply better performance in end-of-year testi
ng. These results underline the need for a more global reflection on t
he effects of context and the role interactions play in the developmen
t of success or failure at school.