Abstract:

The presentation is focused on the most significant characteristics of educational environment that influence learning outcomes and can be adjusted in order to improve the quality of education. The target population consists of primary school graduates (the 10-years old fourth- grade students). The instrument is SAM (Student Achievement Monitoring Toolkit) that is based on Vygotsky’s theory and is designed to evaluate examinees’ subject competences on three basic levels: formal, reflexive and functional [1,2].
SAM toolkit includes subject tests (in mathematics and native language) and a set of questionnaires for students and teachers. Questionnaires intend to identify the characteristics of the educational environment that impact on the learning process and outcomes. The SAM is supposed to be used for organization, improvement and accompaniment of learning processes at schools. The particular feature of SAM is providing information on the student’s subject competence not only on the quantitative level but also on the qualitative one.

The next questions will be discussed in presentation:
1. The structure of SAM subject tests and their features
2. The scaling method and benchmarks establishment
3. The students’ estimation and the interpretation of test results
4. The school environmental factors related to the student’s achievements.

The main attention will be paid to the last point. For the purpose of identification and investigation of these factors we used information provided by schools and SAM questionnaires. Thus we have got the complex characteristic of the educational environment on the following issues:

• Priorities and features of the school policy
• Organizational, methodological, social and psychological resources of the school
• Teacher characteristics include 4 topics:

a) lessons (the educational process and communication with students)
b) organization of extracurricular activities
c) professional and personal setting, communication with colleagues
d) communication with parents

As a result of this research we have found out the specific characteristics of educational environment that lead to progress at each level of competences. We will finish our presentation with the list of recommendations about the educational environment which can help to improve the quality of students’ achievements.

References:
1. Nezhnov, P. (2011). SAM – toolkit to assess primary school students’ academic achievements. CADMO. Innovations in assessment to meet changing needs. ANNO XIX, 1, pp.85-98.
2. Kardanova E., Gaponova N. New technologies of assessment: School Achievements Monitoring Toolkit // The paper presented at EDULEARN12, Barcelona, Spain, 2012. http://library.iated.org/view/KARDANOVA2012NEW

Keywords:

SAM (Student Achievement Monitoring), Educational environment, Students assessment.