Can you please define and explain the so-called six-minus
culture ('zesjescultuur') in Dutch education? Wes Holleman
takes up this challenge. Dutch teachers, governors and politicians
contend that too many students have no ambition at all. Students
are said to be satisfied when they barely pass their tests and
exams, in stead of trying to get high marks. They are supposed to
be tainted with a calculating six-minus mentality.
In this essay Holleman will indicate thirteen structural
factors which cause high marks to be unattractive, or even
unfeasable, for students in Dutch secondary
education.
1. High marks only reflect teacher
satisfaction
In Holland student performance is graded on a ten-point scale,
but only the six-mark has some calibrated meaning. It indicates
that the student has performed satisfactorily. The student has
satisfied the minimum requirements set by the teacher. The teacher
is satisfied with the performance. What more might the teacher
wish? The marks from seven up to ten indicate that the teacher is
more than satisfied. But students can only guess about the criteria
used by the teacher. On what quality dimensions the surplus
learning outcomes are being assessed? Or is the learning
process (diligence, attention, obedience) being assessed
and rewarded as well? Why bother getting high marks when their
meaning is quite unclear: just to please the teacher?
The arbitrariness involved in high marks is well illustrated by
the ten-mark. If a student has fully reached the learning goals set
by the teacher, is there any guarantee that he or she will earn a
ten-mark? If so, why hasn't the teacher specified and disclosed
those learning goals? Or is there some truth in the Dutch saying
'ten is for the master', which suggests that no student will ever
receive a ten-mark, as it is reserved for the expert teacher who
rocks himself in self-esteem.
2. High marks do not yield social status
As the criteria for assigning higher marks are very ambiguous,
they don't yield social status within the peer group. Students
getting higher marks tend to be seen as eager beavers, toadies or
even teacher's pets. High marks do not fit into the social values
shared within the peer group. In that regard some sort of 'grading
on the curve' might be preferred, as it would meet the student's
desire to excel in comparison with peers.
In such a grading system, the students performing at or beyond
the six-mark would be ranked into fixed percentile classes: for
example the top 10% get a ten-mark, the next 15% a nine-mark, the
next 20% an eight-mark, the following 25% a seven-mark and the last
30% a six-mark. So, any student performing 6 or beyond, would know
how well he (or she) has performed when compared with his
peers.
3. Essentially, Dutch teachers use a dichotomous scale:
Pass or Fail
Dutch teachers use a ten-point scale, but essentially it is a
two-point scale: Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory? That is: Pass or
Fail. Marks below 6 (or six-minus) signify that the student has
performed unsatisfactorily. He (she) has failed the test.
By low marks he is informed that he should perform better next
time, or even that he must take the same test another time to show
that, in the meantime, he has reached the required minimum level.
So, the student has no need to earn marks beyond six. A six-mark is
sufficient for proceeding to the next learning task. You have leapt
the ditch succesfully: the student has managed to reach the other
side of the ditch with dry heels, as we say in Holland.
4. High marks have no surplus value for one's school
career
An American student who has an average mark (GPA) of D-minus is
performing very badly. He won't get very far. But a Dutch six-minus
student is performing satisfactorily: he or she will pass to the
next school year and in the end he or she may pass to university.
In an economic sense, a Dutch mark beyond 6 has no surplus value. A
mark beyond 6 is meant as a positive incentive, but it adds no
extra value to one's educational career.
5. It is not the marks that count but the school-type
you are in
At the end of primary school, 11-year old pupils have a
nation-wide achievement test in Dutch and Arithmatics (the
so-called CITO-test):
- pupils with the best scores can go to the six-year Independent
'Gymnasium' (grammar school with Latin and Greek in the core
curriculum), preparing for university;
- the somewhat lesser scores go to the six-year VWO-department
(with Latin and Greek as optionals), preparing for university as
well;
- pupils with lower scores go to the five-year HAVO-department,
preparing for the professional schools (such as the non-university
polytechnics);
- or they go to the four-year pre-vocational VMBO-department
(either the 'high' theoretical or mixed stream, or any of the two
'lower' streams), preparing for the vocational schools.
So, after primary school pupils try to get admission to a
school-type as high-ranking as possible (eventually via the first
transition year, which is meant to be a selection and allocation
period). Once they have been admitted, they try to cling to that
school-type. If their marks will drop below the 6-level, they risk
a degradation to a lower-ranking school-type. But higher marks
won't promote them to a higher-ranking school-type.
6. Completion of a high-ranking school-type yields
social status
Holland is a class-ridden society. Dutch uppermiddle-class and
upper-class want their children to go to the Independent
'Gymnasium' or to the VWO-department (and afterwards to the
university), even if they have barely enough talent for such a
school career. They prefer their children to repeat a year, rather
than to be degraded to HAVO or VMBO.
So, six-minus students may be uppermiddle-class or upper-class
students who do their utmost to stay in their high-ranking
school-type. In their school class they don't have a six-minus
mentality: they struggle to get Pass-marks in order to
survive in their social class.
7. High marks have no surplus value, as postsecondary
education has no entrance examinations
After the transition from primary to secondary education, there
are no strict entrance examinations. Secondary education concludes
with a final examination and if students pass that exit exam they
are automatically admitted to university or professional school or
vocational school (provided that they have passed the required
subjects). If they have passed that exam, whatever their marks,
they will be admitted to a study career in postsecondary education.
Neither during one's secondary school career nor at this final
exam, there is any need to earn marks beyond 6.
8. Exit exams require every student to meet the SAME
minimum level
Each school-type in secondary education has its own nation-wide
exit examination. To a certain extent students can choose their own
subjects, but the minimum-level to be reached is fixed. If students
don't reach that level, as indicated by six-marks or beyond, they
will fail the exam and they'll have to resit the whole exam the
following year.
It is all or nothing: students who try to achieve high marks in
some exam subjects, run the risk of failing the exam (and having to
resit all subjects next year!), unless they manage to achieve
six-marks in the other exam subjects as well.
9. High-ranking exams require every student to meet the
same HIGH minimum level
In order to make the course sufficiently challenging for
high-ability students, the pace of instruction (and the level to be
reached at the final exam) is attuned to the better students, - say
to the 75th percentile of the ability ranking in a class. Students
of lesser ability have to work very hard to keep up with the
teacher's pace and they will earn no marks beyond 6 or 7.
So, especially in the higher-ranking schooltypes, the learning
climate is very exacting. This is not only imposed by the Dutch
class society (the highest diplomas should be hard-to-get as they
are an entrance ticket to the intellectual elite and to the higher
social classes), but also by the competing subsystems of tertiary
education. The higher-ranking tertiary subsystems set high
standards for their students.
The universities (e.g. the department of chemistry or
pharmaceutical sciences) have to set very high standards in order
to exceed the professional schools (e.g. the school for higher lab
technicians). And the professional schools have to set high
standards in order to exceed the diploma requirements of the
vocational schools (e.g. the school for pharmacist's
assistants).
10. Students have to survive in a system of continuous
selection hinging on the six-mark
As a fixed minimum-level of performance is required at the final
exam, entrance to the intermediate years is restricted. Students
are not admitted to the next year within their school-type unless
they have reached the level which is required to start in that next
form. If they have not reached that level, they will have to repeat
the year they are in, or they will be degraded to a lower
school-type.
The one and only criterion used in this selection process is the
six-mark: Pass or Fail. [In postsecondary education this continuous
selection process will go on. The final minimum-level to be reached
is fixed. Having passed the final exam of secondary school,
students are free te enter, but here again they study at their own
risk. They don't get any assurance that they will succeed. Students
have to earn at least six-marks to pass the final exam and get
their diploma.]
11. No restrictions on study duration: students and
teachers get demoralized
Getting a Fail is no great loss to one's study career, as Dutch
students are allowed to repeat a form. They are allowed to slack
off in one school year and repeat the form in their next school
year. So, getting (and giving!) low marks in one school year is no
problem, for the student can take a second chance next year. This
is a dominant characteristic of the system of secondary and
postsecondary education in the Netherlands: final requirements are
fixed and study duration is more or less free.
So, in their mutual study contract, neither the teacher nor the
student can trust one another. The student is suspected to be lazy
or unfit for the school-type he or she is in. And teachers, as
well, may loose their professional devotion and may trade the
supportive teacher's role for the harsh selector's role. As they
cannot count on the diligence and good will of each other, they
both tend to get demoralized. Both students and teachers lack the
common framework provided by Anglosaxon systems: try to attain an
achievement level as high as possible within a fixed study
duration.
12. High marks have no surplus value, as there are no
advanced or honours courses
High-achievers have no prospect of being placed into advanced
courses or honours courses within their school-type. So high marks
are not being rewarded in any way. Every student within the
school-type follows the same track. Gifted students cannot earn the
privilege to excel in a more challenging learning environment.
13. Upward mobile students: the Peter
Principle
When students have graduated in a lower-ranking schooltype, they
are allowed to move on into a higher-ranking schooltype (this holds
for secondary as well as postsecondary curricula). That may be an
incentive to try and get high marks in lower-ranking schooltypes.
Yet as a consequence, the higher-ranking school-types have to cope
with the Peter Principle: in a hierarchical organization
everybody tends to be promoted until he has reached his level of
incompetence.
This rule fully applies to the hierarchical structure of Dutch
education. Every student tries to move up to the school-type in
which he or she is bound to fail. Or at best: upward mobile
students try to attain the school-type in which they can only
achieve six-minus marks.
Conclusion
The Dutch system does not promote high marks, but it
promotes students to enter and complete high-ranking
school-types and produce satisfactory marks there. It
does not promote, however, that each student achieves up to his or
her full potential and it certainly does not make the top 10% of
students achieve their full potential. It will take great effort to
repair this drawback of the Dutch educational system. In the table
below I suggest some solutions to be considered within the
constraints set by the Dutch system.
Dr. J.W. Holleman, sociologist, is an active edublogger. An
earlier version of this essay was published on his website.
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re 1, 2: Inform students about the quality
level of their performance in four different dimensions:
- does my performance meet the minimum-level required by the
teacher (Pass or Fail)?
- what is the rank of my performance as compared with my peers
(the percentile class I am in)?
- what performance level I have reached as compared with full
mastery (the distance I have to cover in order to acquire a
certificate of full competency)?
- does my performance yield any surplus credit (honours points,
compensatory points)?
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re 1, 10: Offer opportunities for mastery
learning, including as much time and help as is needed to acquire
full competency, as an incentive to exceed half-baked progress
(only deserving a poor six-minus). And offer formal testimonies
which will certify full competency.
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re 1, 3: Grade on a two-point scale (Pass or
Fail), unless the law requires otherwise, and apply the following
decision rules:
- The cut-off point between Pass and Fail will be set as high as
is needed for progress towards the requirements of the final exam.
Do not give a Pass if the student's performance level is
insufficient for carrying out the next tasks successfully.
- The cut-off point between Pass and Fail should not be higher.
Offer surplus credit (honours points) to students who want to
exceed the minimum requirements. Specify the surplus learning goals
to be reached (or the surplus performance to be achieved) by
students who want to acquire surplus credit. School performance is
not about pleasing the teacher but about acquiring and certifying
learning outcomes (as specified in learning goals).
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re 10, 11: Restore mutual trust between teacher
and student by closing study contracts with each student in
accordance with a feasable work load, study pace and study
duration. Apply streaming (ability grouping) so that students who
work under a similar contract will get the teacher support they
need. Cater for continuous progression in stead of wasteful repeat
years.
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re 4, 9, 12: Offer enriched courses (honours
programs) for high-ability students who usually earn surplus credit
(or high marks) in the regular program. Subject prospective honours
students to strict entrance selection and refer them back to the
regular program if the don't keep up with the pace of the honours
program.
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re 4, 13: Offer honours programs for high
achievers who, after their future graduation, want to move to a
higher-ranking school-type. In other words: offer to them a
high-quality preparation for that higher school-type, so that the
Peter Principle will not come true.
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re 10, 11: Transform special programs (such as
Independent 'Gymnasium', Technasium, Bilingual programs), which
require student to do surplus subjects or even surplus exams, into
honours programs with a highly restricted admission and in which
students are not allowed to exceed the regular course duration.
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re 4, 7, 11, 12: Offer honours courses in
postsecondary education and, in their entrance selection, take into
account whether the applicants earned surplus credit (or high
marks) in their secondary school career and did not exceed the
regular course duration of their secondary curricula.
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