Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.15516/cje.v20i0.3118
Assessing Language Competence in Croatian Language as a School Subject (Based on Exam Papers for Grades 3-6)
Tamara Gazdić-Alerić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5035-1587
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Teacher Education
Marko Alerić
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Abstract
This paper presents the results of the research on exam papers for Croatian language in grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 of primary school that are used for checking the acquisition of different norms of the Croatian standard language. The aim of the research was to warn about the acceptability and non-acceptability of written examinations (tests), especially in terms of their age appropriateness and the cognitive abilities of students, as well as to try to contribute to the standardization of written examinations (tests) for assessing the level of mastery of language skills.
The research confirmed the starting assumptions that the biggest drawbacks of the analysed examinations are their disconnectedness from the educational objectives set out in the Curriculum for Primary Schools (2006), their inappropriateness for the age of students, i.e. their cognitive abilities, incompatibility of task types with the educational objectives that are being examined, i.e. incompatibility of the structures of some task types with their methodological principles.
It is recommended to include more content related to test tasks design into initial teacher training and to link that content to the subject matter of educational outcomes and psychometrics. At the same time, an appeal needs to be made to the competent institutions, primarily the Ministry of Science and Education and the Education and Teacher Training Agency, especially now that a full reform of the educational system is being implemented, to raise the importance of the mechanisms that control the quality of exam papers required for use in schools in the Republic of Croatia, in accordance with the prescribed standards.
Keywords
cognitive levels of knowledge; educational outcomes; exam papers.
Hrčak ID:
214284
URI
Publication date:
30.10.2018.
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