Forms and Functions of Secondary-School-Leaving Examinations

Eckstein, Max A.; Noah, Harold J.

doi:10.1086/446860

Cited by 19 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…University entrance exams in Japan are high stakes, and affect the lives of Japanese high school students in many school settings. Many observers have noted strong effects of university entrance exams on classroom instruction in Japan (Eckstein & Noah, 1989;National Institute for Educational Research, 1991;Rohlen, 1983), including English language instruction (Brown & Yamashita, 1995a, 1995bGorsuch, 1998;Hildebrandt & Giles, 1983;Kawakami, 1993;Kodaira, 1996;Koike & Tanaka, 1995;Law, 1994Law, , 1995Miller, 1998;Yukawa, 1994) and on teachers' attitudes towards communicative activities (Gorsuch, 1999a). Reportedly, Japanese high school English teachers feel they are expected to prepare students for university entrance exams by having students translate English passages into Japanese, taking vocabulary quizzes, and focusing their instruction on developing students' linguistic knowledge at the expense of linguistic skills (Law, 1995;Miller, 1998).…”

Section: The Realities Of Japanese High School English Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Japanese EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Communicative, Audiolingual and Yakudoku Activities

Gorsuch

2001

EPAA

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In recent years, the learning of English as a Foreign Language in Japanese high schools has become the focus of new educational policies applied at the national level. One of these is The Course of Study issue by the Ministry of Education, in which teachers are, for the first time in a long series of curriculum guidelines, adjured to develop students' "positive attitudes towards communicating in English." Another is the JET program, which has put thousands of native English speaking assistant language teachers (ALTs) into Japanese secondary classrooms for the purpose of team teaching with Japanese teachers. Data resulting from a survey project of 876 Japanese high school English teachers was used to provide empirical evidence of teachers' levels of approval of communicative, audiolingual and traditional (yakudoku) activities. Teachers were also asked to rate the strengths of a variety of influences on their instruction, including university entrance exams, and pre- and in-service teacher education programs. Teachers' perceptions of both activities and instructional influences were examined in light of teachers' length of career, type of school (private versus public, academic versus vocational), and level of contact with an ALT. The data revealed the complexities of imposing broad, national educational policies on a diverse group of teachers, and in an educational culture which likely precludes teachers' use of communicative activities.

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Section: The Realities Of Japanese High School English Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Japanese EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Communicative, Audiolingual and Yakudoku Activities

Gorsuch

2001

EPAA

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“…Comparative studies in the late 20th and early 21st century have emphasized educational outcomes, employing outcome measures such as the tests developed by the International Association for the Evaluation of International Achievement (Eckstein and Noah, 1989;Husen, 1995) and more recently the Program for International Student Assessment (Lemke et al, 2001). These studies have shown that the examination of performance data across cultures can alert educators to academic disciplines that require more instructional time or attention to the manner in which the subjects are taught.…”

Section: Theoretical Foundation and Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

What Classroom Environments Tell About the Pedagogical Aspects of Subject Matter

McEachron¹,

Bracken

Baker

2003

School Psychology International

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This study presents a cross-cultural comparison of United States, English and Welsh students' perceptions of secondary classroom environments in six academic disciplines -English, mathematics, science, history, geography, and French. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between classroom environment and subject matter (i.e. academic disciplines). This can be phrased as a question, 'Do academic disciplines have universal structural characteristics that influence classroom environment and the pedagogical interaction between students and teachers?' To gain insight into the relationship between an academic discipline and teacher/student interaction, classroom environments in six subject areas were investigated, using the Classroom Environment Scale (CES). CES protocols were completed by and collected from the following students in the US (n = 412); England (n = 152) and Wales (n = 232), ranging in age from 13 to 19 years. In addition to the CES, data collection included classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, and an examination of the cultural and political context of the schools. Variable differences in classroom environments were found to exist on the basis of academic discipline, nationality, age and gender across all CES subscales. Subject matter patterns suggest that the nature of the academic discipline may indeed influence teacher and student interactions and that these patterns are consistent across national boundaries.

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“…Early studies comparing school-leaving qualifications were generally qualitative, providing a subjective evaluation of the whole qualification (Eckstein & Noah, 1989;Kellaghan & Greaney, 2004). Their reliability is therefore questionable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter-rater agreement in assigning cognitive demand to Life Sciences examination questions

Dempster

Kirby

2018

PiE

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Taxonomies of cognitive demand are frequently used to ensure that assessment tasks include questions ranging from low to high cognitive demand. This paper investigates inter-rater agreement among four evaluators on the cognitive demand of the South African National Senior Certificate Life Sciences examinations after training, practice and revision. The taxonomy used was based on the cognitive dimension of the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy, with analysis, evaluation and synthesis combined into one category. Descriptors from the Revised Bloom's taxonomy were slightly modified to suit Life Sciences. Inter-rater agreement was poor to fair, but pairwise percent agreement did not reach acceptable levels. Evaluators found it difficult to assign cognitive demand to examination items, and constantly referred to the descriptors. We question the usefulness of a taxonomy of cognitive demand when individuals differ in their interpretations of the levels of cognitive demand. The results indicate that standards of Life Sciences examination papers cannot reliably be assessed by evaluating cognitive demand using Bloom's Taxonomy.

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Forms and Functions of Secondary-School-Leaving Examinations

Cited by 19 publications

References 1 publication

Japanese EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Communicative, Audiolingual and Yakudoku Activities

Japanese EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Communicative, Audiolingual and Yakudoku Activities

What Classroom Environments Tell About the Pedagogical Aspects of Subject Matter

Inter-rater agreement in assigning cognitive demand to Life Sciences examination questions

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