An ‘appropriate’ test taker: the everyday classroom during the national testing period in school year three in Sweden

Silfver, Eva; Sjöberg, Gunnar; Bagger, Anette

doi:10.1080/17457823.2015.1085323

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Several qualitative and quantitative studies have also shown that (high-stakes) testing is related to feelings of anxiety and stress (von der Embse, Putwain 2009;Ryan and Ryan 2005;Segool et al 2013;Banks and Smyth 2015;Silfver, Sjöberg, and Bagger 2016), as well as to higher cortisol levels, a strong indication of stress (Heissel et al 2018). Moreover, stress in school is related to health (Sonmark et al 2016) and Swedish adolescents report that pressure at school is more stressful than pressure at home (Schraml et al 2011).…”

Section: Previous Research and Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Formally, grades in Sweden are primarily high stakesin the sense that they have important institutionalised consequencesfor pupils, not schools. However, in school systems based on competition between schools, such as in Sweden, the grade point average of a school is used to attract pupils to the school, and grades are considered high stakes for teachers as they are used to hold teachers accountable for the performance of their pupils (Lundahl, Hultén, and Tveit 2017;Silfver, Sjöberg, and Bagger 2016). Thus, in a Swedish context, grades, in combination with the extensive use of national standardised tests, can be seen as a functional equivalent to high-stakes testing, implying an emphasis on summative assessment, goal attainment, standardization and monitoring.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Consequences of school grading systems on adolescent health: evidence from a Swedish school reform

Högberg

Lindgren

Johansson

et al. 2019

Journal of Education Policy

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Education reforms that entail increased emphasis on high-stakes testing, assessment and grading have spread across education systems in recent decades. Critics have argued that these policies could have consequences for stress, identity, self-esteem and the overall health of pupils. However, these potentially negative consequences have rarely been investigated in a systematic and rigorous way. In this study we use a major education reform in Sweden, which introduced grades and increased the use of testing for pupils in the 6 th and 7 th school year (aged 12 to 13 years), to study the consequences of grading and assessment for health outcomes. Using data from the Health Behaviours of School-Aged Children Survey, we find that the reform increased school-related stress and reduced the academic self-esteem of pupils in the 7 th school year. This, in turn, had an indirect effect on psychosomatic symptoms and life satisfaction for these pupils. Moreover, the negative effects of the reform were generally stronger for girls, thereby widening the already troubling gender differences in health. We conclude that accountability reforms aimed at increased use of testing, assessment and grading can potentially have negative side effects on pupils' health.

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Section: Previous Research and Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of school grading systems on adolescent health: evidence from a Swedish school reform

Högberg

Lindgren

Johansson

et al. 2019

Journal of Education Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Swedish students taking (more) tests Silfver, Sjöberg and Bagger (2016) (see also Silfver, Sjöberg & Bagger, 2013) have studied how the macro-trends of performativity filter down to the mathematics classroom and affect grade three children's understanding of themselves as test-takers, their proficiency in mathematics, and their relationship to the teacher in relation to tests. Some children understand themselves as 'appropriate' test-takers, others less so.…”

Section: Mathematics Education Assessment and Competencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some children understand themselves as 'appropriate' test-takers, others less so. Furthermore, the test interrupts the usual learning climate, as cooperation between children is no longer promoted, and the role of the teacher changes from someone who assists to someone who may seem not to care about his/her students (Silfver et al, 2016).…”

Section: Mathematics Education Assessment and Competencementioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing ethics education through national tests—an advantage or not?

Sporre

2018

Journal of Curriculum Studies

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The purpose of this study is to describe, critically analyse and discuss the Swedish system of assessing ethics education in compulsory school through national tests. The publicly available tests from 2013 for grades six and nine have been studied as have the assessment instructions for teachers. Staff responsible for the test construction have been interviewed. The aims, core content and knowledge requirements of the curriculum were also studied. The concept 'ethical competence' was used as an analytical tool in the qualitative content analyses. Through the design of this study, the actual test, its process of construction and the curriculum were examined. The results suggest that ethics education, given (a) the curricular construction of what ability to assess, (b) complexities of test construction in ethics and (c) possible teach-to-the-test effects, runs the risk of being limited to an argumentative, conceptual competence, with ethics education being emptied of crucial content. However, being included in national testing can strengthen the position of a school subject. Is it then an advantage for ethics education to be tested in this way? The critical problems the study raises make the author conclude it to be a disadvantage for ethics education to be tested through national tests.

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“…These discursive practices, henceforward called the 'testing discourse', are the many rituals around the test such as moving desks apart, teachers reading the test instructions aloud, children working silently and on their own, and teachers hushing and whispering (Sjöberg, Silfver, and Bagger 2015). Earlier research shows that even though testing is new to children in grade three, many of the testing practices, for example, the rearrangement of desks, are taken for granted and children quickly pick them up (Silfver, Sjöberg, and Bagger 2016). This rearrangement emphasizes individual performance and thereby has power to produce the individual subject (Kasanen and Räty 2008).…”

Section: Theoretical Underpinningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Classroom bodies: affect, body language, and discourse when schoolchildren encounter national tests in mathematics

Silfver

Jacobsson

Arnell

et al. 2018

Gender and Education

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The aim of this paper is to analyse how Swedish grade three children are discursively positioned as pupils when they are taking national tests in mathematics and when they reflect on the testing situation afterwards. With support from theories about affectivediscursive assemblages, we explore children's body language, emotions, and talk in light of the two overarching discourses that we believe frame the classroom: the 'testing discourse' and the 'development discourse'. Through the disciplinary power of these main discourses children struggle to conduct themselves in order to become recognized as intelligible subjects and 'ideal pupils'. The analysis, when taking into account how affects and discourses intertwine, shows that children can be in 'untroubled', 'troubled', or ambivalent subject positions.

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An ‘appropriate’ test taker: the everyday classroom during the national testing period in school year three in Sweden

Cited by 20 publications

References 25 publications

Consequences of school grading systems on adolescent health: evidence from a Swedish school reform

Consequences of school grading systems on adolescent health: evidence from a Swedish school reform

Assessing ethics education through national tests—an advantage or not?

Classroom bodies: affect, body language, and discourse when schoolchildren encounter national tests in mathematics

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