Student participation in the preparation on the theoretical examination: analysis of results

Abstract

Examinations in the pre-service teacher education can have an impact on students’ academic life as well as on their subsequent teaching. Therefore, the application of Formative and Shared Assessment (F&SA) systems can help to improve their learning on an ongoing basis. A study is presented with three main researched questions: (a)what influence can student involvement in the design of exam questions have on academic performance in the pre-service teacher education?; (b) can the grades obtained in the final exam be influenced by the students’ background?; (c) how reliable is the peer making of the exam compared to teacher marking? The methodology used is based on a case study with 35 students divided into two groups. To obtain the data, the report with the exam marks is used. The results show a high academic performance in most of the students, but we did not find significant differences between groups according to their education background. They also show a high and significant reliability in the correction of the exam between students and teachers. The implications seem positive and relevant in the pre-service teacher education; however, it seems advisable to test the good results of this procedure with groups performing more traditional examinations models, with larger samples or with other pre-service teacher education subjects.