State Matura Exam Of High-Secondary Education In Kosovo: An Analysis Of The Quality Of The Exam

Author(s):

Artë Retkoceri(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

11. Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 12, Do We Really Need Assessments in Schools?

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-25

09:00-10:30

Room:

W2.10

Chair:

Heidi Flavian

Contribution

Kosovo has had a huge transformation in the educational system after 1999. In early 2000, under the administration of United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) the Department of Education and Science was created with the rule 2000/11. In 2003, the hugest reform in lower secondary and higher secondary education was introduced. The need for introducing the new Curriculum Framework was seen as necessary due to new socio-economic conditions in the country and as such the immediate requisite for creating a firm foundation for further academic studies and efficient capacities for the labour market . This meant that as a result of the changes in the format and as well curriculum of pre-university education, the generation of pupils that started upper-secondary education in the school year 2003/2004 and had three years of studies, for the first time went through State Matura (SM) exam in the school year 2005/2006. “Standardised assessment at the end of grade 12, through the State Matura examination, aims to measure the level of achievement in mastering the key competences expressed through learning outcomes for the curriculum key stage” . The Law on Final Exam and State Matura Exam was introduced only in 2008 (“Law No. 03/L-018”, 2008). Until that time, the exam was held only based on the administrative directives issued by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in Kosovo (MEST).

After its implementation, SM exam has been one of the most important assessment ways of pre-university education in Kosovo. However, the examination as a process has been criticized through years for its poor quality and poor results at the same. According to MEST, the test delivered in 2015 has more satisfying results and at the same time they are more realistic. According to the Director of the Central State Matura Commission (CSMC), “The test administration was in the appropriate level, but also the conditions under which the test was held were also better, therefore rightly we can say that the results are realistic, while compared to the last year there is marked an increase of 1.4 percent”. Despite the fact that most of the attention is put on the administration of the test as a process, overall the quality of the test has very rarely been discussed. The official claims of MEST point that there has been particular improvement in delivering SM exam. The exam being the only standardized assessment form at the end of pre-university level in Kosovo, has had crucial importance in evaluating the learning and the knowledge acquired during high school. Therefore, with this paper through analysis of the tests over years, starting from 2007, I will try to demonstrate if certain changes occurred in the quality of final exam of upper-secondary education in Kosovo. The research question posed and attempted to be answered is: Did the State Matura exam improve or in any way change its quality as the assessment method of upper-education in Kosovo? Answering the question will be possible by making a thorough analysis and comparison among the SM exams throughout years, with a provision on the Bloom’s Taxonomy categories which are the pillars of composing this type of test in Kosovo.

Method

The paper will be in the form of analysis of documents available, in order to inspect the changes that have occurred through years in the SM exam. In order to be more specific and focused, the paper will take into consideration only the compulsory part of the SM exam which is held each year at the end of school year in June. All the students finishing upper-lower education, that plan to continue their higher education studies must go through the exam. However, those that plan to continue in post-secondary vocational trainings are free to not take the test. The exam has two parts: the first one is the general education which is compulsory and includes three subjects (Albanian or other official native languages in Kosovo, mathematics and English language) and is the same for all the students. The second part includes the specific classes that each school had throughout three or four years of studies. Considering that there are huge differences between different fields of studies and the general part of the exam should be taken by all high school students, this paper will focus on the compulsory part of the test. Hence, there will be an analysis of all available tests of the past years. The exams in hand, fall into criterion-referenced tests which do not compare students among each other, but require them to fulfil a given set of criteria, a predefined standard or outcome. During analysis of the tests, the following steps were taken into consideration: identifying the specifications of the test, considering the form of the test and the timing of the test. Test items were as well analysed in line with Bloom’s taxonomy categories. As indicated by Osterlind (2002), regardless of its widespread use, Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives is often constrictive to test developers. This is so because developing test items which conform to the language of the taxonomy results in too many items being labelled in the knowledge dimension, the lowest-level category. With care, some items may be written to the comprehension or even the application category, but by Bloom’s descriptions few items can be constructed to assess processes at the high-end taxonomy levels of analysis, synthesis, or evaluation. Hence, during analysis it was essential to identify similar issues that were present in the documents, at the same time backing the results on the original guidelines of the taxonomy.

Expected Outcomes

According to NQF currently in place, SM exam is the only way to assess students officially at the end of high school. Hence, its quality is a significant factor for those that plan to continue further their studies. The analysis of the tests, unleashes the evidence that in general there have been changes in the formulation of the tests and as a result improvements were noticed in the construction of the questions. The main adjustment is noticed in the part of Albanian language and as well as in the English part of the test. Albanian language part in the latest years has expanded the area of examining to not simply Albanian literature but as well world literature as learned in the subject taught in the class. As well, the categories from Bloom’s Taxonomy have expanded to an additional usage of the third and fourth level, rather than a strong concentration in the first level. As for the English part of the test, the formulation of the questions has enhanced through years and moreover the number of questions included in the exam was increased. Most of questions still remain within the remembering category of the taxonomy, but as well other categories are used throughout the test in a more equally distributed manner. While Mathematics has been comprehensive since the beginning, the number of questions now differs in a way that there are less than in 2007 but more than in 2009. The quality of the questions remains principally stable, however in the recent years it can be noticed that more advanced areas of the subject such as integrals or trigonometry have been removed. As a result, taking into consideration all the above factors and elements inspected during the analysis of the exams, the quality of the exam has improved through years.

References

“AAK: Edhe sivjet, testi i Maturës me problemet e vjetra”. (2013). Telegrafi, 18 December 2015. Retrieved from “CSMC announced the results of the matura test – passing rate 53.9 percent”. 22 June 2015. Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in Kosovo. Web. 1 November 2015. Retrieved from < https://goo.gl/1i2KPB >. “Division for Standards, Monitoring and Assessment” (n.d.). 15 December 2015. Retrieved from: “ECTS User’s guide 2015”. (2015). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union “Korniza e Kurrikulit të ri të Kosovës”: Arsimi parashkollor, fillor, i mesëm dhe i mesëm i lartë. (2001). Department of Education and science, Prishtinë: Kosovo “LDK: Testi i maturës dështim i qeverisë”. (2011). Telegrafi, 18 December 2015. Retrieved from < http://www.telegrafi.com/lajme/kosove/ldk-testi-i-matures-deshtim-i-qeverise.html > “Provimin e kaluan 10757 maturantë”. (2011). 23 December 2015, Retrieved from Bloom, B.S. (Ed.). Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H., Krathwohl, D.R. (1956).Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc. Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education (6th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. European Commission. (2015). Descriptors defining levels in the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), 24 December 2015. Retrieved from Kadriu, M. (2015).“Përpilimi i kërkesave (pyetjeve) sipas konceptit të Taksonomisë së Bloom-it”. Presentation. Retrieved from Law No. 03/L-018. (2008). Law on final exam and state matura exam. Kosovo: Assembly of Republic of Kosovo. Law No. 03/L-060. (2008). Law on National Qualifications. Kosovo: Assembly of Republic of Kosovo. Mehmeti, S. (2014). Provimi i maturës në Kosovë. Prishtinë, Kosovo: Instituti Pedagogjik i Kosovës. NQA. (2011). National Qualifications Framework: Development of Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Development of NQA and NQF in Kosovo, Project No: 2009/216-809.Prishtinë, Kosovo. NQA. (2014). Referencing report of Kosovo NQF for General Education, VET and Higher Education to EQF. Prishtinë, Kosovo Osterlind, S. J. (2002). Constructing Test Items: Multiple-Choice, Constructed-Response, Performance and Other Formats. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Sommers, M. and Buckland, P. (2004). Parallel worlds: Rebuilding the education system in Kosovo. UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, FR. Spahiu, F (Producer). (2011, 2014, 2015). Jeta në Kosovë: Suksesi në Fundvit. Prishtinë, Kosovo: Radio Televizioni i Kosovës and BIRN. 13 November 2015. Retrieved from

Author Information

Artë Retkoceri (presenting / submitting)

Aarhus University

Prishtina

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