STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ ASSESSMENT
WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO THE SUBJECT OF ENGLISH
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.38003/zrffs.14.4
Tania Blažević, Sveučilište u Splitu, Pravni fakultet, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1082-6378
Mara Ruža Blažević, Sveučilište u Splitu, Fakultet elektrotehnike, strojarstva i brodogradnje https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6068-0445
Abstract:
Using research investigating the effect of teacher assessment practices in secondary
schooling in Croatia on student perceptions of fairness, this paper points out participating
students’ perception of fairness of assessment, focusing on teacher assessment in three
secondary school subjects, but particularly in the subject of English. The research
overall included enquiry into the fairness of teacher assessment practices in three
secondary school subjects. The implemented research was both of a quantitative and
qualitative nature. The research design was intended to be both empirical, measuring
students’ perception, and quasi-ethnographic, seeking to interpret these perceptions
through understanding the context. Student questionnaires, involving a total of 330
students, teacher interviews, involving a total of 12 teachers, and analysis of teachers’
assessment documents were used to collect data that were then analysed within case
studies. Each case study, totalling six in number, represented a teacher with two classes
of students studying one of the chosen three subjects. Classes of secondary school
students from two high schools studying the subjects of Biology, Croatian or English as
a foreign language formed the sample groups. These students were asked to complete a
questionnaire based on Likert response type items founded on the Student Perception of
Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ) and open-ended questions based on a questionnaire
developed at the Centre for Schooling and Learning Technologies (CSaLT). The SPAQ
items were measured by five scales. The teachers of these students were interviewed
and also provided documents that illustrate how they assessed students in these three
subjects. The investigation uncovered variations in responses to teachers and subjects
and differences in student response between classes of the same teacher which are
possibly indicative, among other elements, of the role of teacher personality factors.
This investigation revealed that from the three secondary school subjects researched,
students’ perception of the secondary school subject of English achieved the most
positive rating among the sample of students involved in the research.
Key words:
student perceptions, fairness, consistency, assessment, ESL
