MARCH 27, 2019

GREAT GRADES?
Grading system in Denmark
IN THIS ISSUE By Elien Roels, Janik Horckmans & Liesel Frans

THREE BELGIAN STUDENTS ON

A ERASMUS EXCHANGE IN First impression
We arrived at Hørsholm on a Monday morning at half past
COPENHAGEN, THAT TRY TO
nine. It's a small village up north from Copenhagen. We're
FAMILIARIZE WITH THE
ready to start our internship.
GRADING SYSTEM OF A
The first thing we noticed was the missing fence. Everybody
DANISH FOLKESKOLE.
can walk in and out of the school like you walk in and out
of a grocery store. We went straight op to the teachers room
to search for Sanne, the teacher we followed for a whole
FIRST IMPRESSIONS week. Sanne teaches math, science and woodcraft in the
5th grade. Another thing we noticed right away was that all
WHAT ABOUT GRADES teacher were adressed by their first names instead of their
last names.

INTERVIEWS What about grades?

CONCLUSION
Example of a test in 5th grade
From 12.00 till 13.30, we followed a math class in 5C. The
class started with the teacher handing out corrected test. As
soon as we saw no grades and no corrective writing, we
were surprised. We asked a student from 5C how the system
works. He told us that they don’t get grades until 7th grade
and that they make test to see how they are doing, but there
is no real attention for grades and appreciation on how they
handle the subject matter. They focus more on doing
presentations and learning from each other. He also told us
he is looking forward to having grades, because now they
don’t really know how good or bad they are doing, but he
likes the system because it doesn't exerts pressure on the
pupils.
After that small interview we decided to dive a little deeper
in the grading system of Danish schools. We interviewed a
teacher and some students from the 9th grade. We chose the
9th grade, because here, the grades matter. This is because
the students will have to get into highschool the next year
and therefore they need proper grades in order to make the
cut.
MARCH 2019
John teaching math in 9th grade
Interview students 9th grade
Thanks to the students of 9the grade, we
gained a better view of the evaluation
system in the folkeskole. According to the
students, they get a report with under
average, average or over average in 5th
and 6th grade. The parents can access
that report on the internet.
In 7th grade, they get marked for the first
time. Twice a year, they get a mark from
A to F, as a first proper indication of how
they score in class.

Interview John, teacher 9th grade "In 8th grade they prepare you for 9th
grade, because only in 9th the marks
John teaches the pupils mathematics, English, physical
matter." - 9th grader-
integration, geography, religion studies and history.
In 8th and 9th grade, they have the same
He finds the system fairly good, but he would definitely
system. The system has a seven step
adjust a few things here and there if he could. For scale: 12( 13, 12 or 11), 10, 7 (9, 8 or 7), 4
instance, he would love to scale the individual progress (6, 5 or 4), 02 (3 or 2), 00 (Fail:1 or 0), -3
of every student in each subject and implement grades (fail, below 0). The students like to know
regarding the level of motivation of the pupils. their exact grade and not something
“Some students might get motivated when obscure. In there opinion, the system is
there is a mark at stake. While the disadvantage flawed when it comes to this matter.
would be that they would just be not
motivated, unless there was a mark at stake.”
-John-

When he asked the students of the 8th grade, they told him that they would not be able to handle
marks at a younger age. But it is probably because it is a habbit. Three times a year, they get a
report. According to John, they have frequent tasks for every course. Some tasks are bigger than
others. Only the bigger tasks get marked, the smaller ones are just to practice.
In 9th grade, they get exams for the first time in a similar fashion to the Belgian exams. except that
they have an external neutral person attending the oral exam to see to it that everything is fair.
This person may also give a second opinion if that is necessary.

CONCLUSION
Because we are used to the Belgian system, the
Danish one was quite surprising. The most
surprising thing was the efficiency and
effectiveness of the system. We think that it is a
good thing that young students don't get marks
early on in their career so they have the chance
to develop themselves at their own pace. But
ofcourse, it is important to give them suitable,
individual feedback from the beginning. It was also
suprising and beautiful to see how motivated and
dedicated the students are, even thought they don't
get marks until they reach 7th grade.

"We think the Belgium grading system could be graded in a greater way!"