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The Role of Classroom Teachers in Standard Setting and Benchmarking

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Teacher Involvement in High-Stakes Language Testing

Abstract

Teachers are one of the main stakeholder groups in test development and as such need to be included as panellists in standard setting. However, their participation can have additional advantageous effects by helping to increase public acceptance of a test and spreading awareness of principles and good practice of language testing among teachers. This chapter presents a case study of involving teachers as judges in newly implemented standard setting procedures as part of the development of a standardized, nation-wide school-leaving exam. The perspectives of teachers who had participated in the standard setting training or live sessions were investigated by means of a questionnaire (N = 43). Results suggest that teacher involvement fostered a wider understanding of the standard to be implemented and that it had a positive direct effect on the attitudes of practitioners towards exam reform. Teachers who had participated in standard setting/standard setting training reported that their involvement had resulted in an increased professional understanding of assessment issues and had directly impacted on classroom testing practices.

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Correspondence to Eva Konrad .

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Konrad, E., Spöttl, C., Holzknecht, F., Kremmel, B. (2018). The Role of Classroom Teachers in Standard Setting and Benchmarking. In: Xerri, D., Vella Briffa, P. (eds) Teacher Involvement in High-Stakes Language Testing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77177-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77177-9_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-77175-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-77177-9

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