Grading of Pupils in History: One-Year Research in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: The aim of the research was to point to a wide range of factors of the pupils’ grading in History classes and to find out if this grading on the given sample corresponds with the context of the independently selected variables: pupils’ weight, inclination to the Socratic type of values, type of family, and parents’ education. Methods: A sample of 1819 7th grade pupils was made up of the pupils of randomly addressed primary schools willing to cooperate. In the course of one school year, a questionnaire survey was carried out on this sample: each of the 14 regions of the Czech Republic was represented by 5 to 9% of the respondents. Data were evaluated at a 5% level of significance by means of the Chi-squared test. Results: In all the monitored cases, a statistically significant link was demonstrated between the dependent variable (pupils’ grading) and independent variables, i.e. the results in History have a wide-spectrum effect. Discussion: The research findings correspond with the results obtained by other scholars, and external factors (independent variables) significantly affect the pupils’ school success regardless of their mental and intellectual dispositions. Limitations: School success is simply monitored through numerical grading of pupils, which does not always and completely reflect the pupils’ progress in terms of their development. It was not a longitudinal survey but only a single one-year research from which no major conclusions can be drawn. Conclusions: It was confirmed that the results of pupils in History, or their historical knowledge, represent a broad-spectrum matter in which the multiplication effect of external influences must be counted. In the future, research should be carried out in longer time ranges and with a greater emphasis on the causality of the phenomena.