Students’ Attitudes Toward Common External Assessment Of Knowledge: Implications For The Reliability And Validity Of Examination Achievements

Many Primary School principals and teachers are stating that pupils' reluctant attitude towards Common External Assessment of Knowledge (CEAK) jeopardises reliability and validity of examination achievements and their interpretations. The research focused on the 6th and 9th grade pupils' attitude towards CEAK and their stage of motivation in achieving success in the exam. The objective was to find, if any, the connection between the test-taking motivation and the CEAK results. For the majority of pupils CEAK is of medium importance and for only 12% is completely irrelevant. The results also show a distinctly high level of medium-motivated test-takers. Most of students are additionally preparing for CEAK and claim that CEAK provides them with additional information on their knowledge. Test-taking motivation was positively and statistically significantly, although rather weakly, related to the CEAK results. Outstandingly stronger connection has been found between the CEAK results and pupils final score of the previous school year in each subject. According to the test-taking motivation, there are differences depending on the school subject and gender. Among the 6th and 9th graders there were no statistically notable differences in test-taking motivation. In addition, there were no significant differences in test-taking motivation between more and less learning ambitious pupils. Research findings suggest that the CEAK results are unlikely to be remarkably negatively affected by a lack of pupils’ test-taking motivation.