Grading from the perspective of pupils

Grading is an integral, inevitable part of educational-upbringing process and presents an especially sensitive segment of teaching practice. With regard to that, the aim of our research was directed towards determining and analysing what pupils think about the process of grading and teachers in the context of grading. This research comprised 200 primary school pupils and 200 grammar school pupils. The questions were grouped into three thematic wholes (pupil's perception of teacher's actions in the process of grading; identification of pupil's preferred ways of grading and their reactions to grades and desirable and undesirable characteristics of teachers in the context of grading from pupil's perspective). On the basis of our findings, it can be concluded that pupils think: that teachers apply lower criteria when grading bad pupils, that they use grades as a disciplinary measure and that they are guided by pupil's grades in other subjects when grading. The grade is a strong motivator of a more active engagement of pupils in teaching process, where pupils especially appreciate regular checking and objective grading in teachers and object to excessively strict and unequal criterion of grading. The paper also provides the lists of desirable and undesirable characteristics of teachers in the context of grading, perceived on the part of pupils