engleski

School self-reflection on the results of the national assessment in English as a foreign language

This research investigates the self-reflection of the schools on the results of the Croatian national exams in English. The exam in English was taken by the entire population of first-year grammar school students (age 15) whose first foreign language is English. The students were also given a questionnaire about their motivation for learning English, study skills, teacher support and engagement in class. The results of the exams and the questionnaire were sent back to schools which were given a self-evaluation form in which they had to compare their results with the state average, interpret and suggest how they could improve them. The researchers used the mixed qualitative and quantitative method to analyse and compare the reports of 15 schools with below-average results on the exam and 15 with above-average results. The qualitative analyses show that the schools identified the students’ motivation and prior knowledge as having the strongest impact on the results. Below-average schools attribute their results mostly to the characteristics of their students, while above-average schools credit their own effort as well. Suggestions for improvement call for a modernisation of the teaching methods, but a lot of them are insufficiently specific.

national assessment; English as a foreign language; school self-evaluation; qualitative analysis; quantitative analysis

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