Session Information
09 SES 11 B, Language and Literacy Assessments (Part 1)
Paper Session
Contribution
The results of international large scale assessments like PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) have caused numerous debates and reforms in the German school system. One of these reforms is the implementation of central exit examinations. Central set exit examinations guarantee comparability of the results and same conditions for all students.
As the federal states of Germany have autonomy in educational matters they could decide whether or when to implement central A-level examinations. Actually 15 of the 16 federal states choose to set central exams for this qualification. Using the example of the proceeding of the federal state North Rhine-Westphalia it is analyzed whether there can be found differences in performance between genders in the central A-level examination in the subject English as foreign language.
Research shows that boys and girls do not have the same performance in every domain. Girls get better results in linguistical and literal subjects whereas boys reach better results in science and mathematics. This variance seams to start in early years. Already in fourth grade it is visible for all participating countries of PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study), that girls have better reading skills than boys (Hornberg, Valtin, Potthoff, Schwippert, & Schulz-Zander, 2007). This distribution is confirmed in all four PISA surveys in regard to the German sample of the years 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009 (Drechsel & Artelt, 2007; OECD, 2010). In addition it could be shown that the differences in performance between boys and girls increase during school time (Lenzen & Blossfeld, 2009). In the field of foreign language learning the DESI-study (Deutsch Englisch Schülerleistungen International) indicates that in ninth grade girls have got an advantage in English as foreign language (Klieme, 2003).
Concerning these findings it will be observed whether boys and girls reach the same results in the A-level examinations or a difference between genders can still be found. Each central A-level test contains three tasks with different degrees of difficulty. Task one is a low level task, task two lies on a medium level and task three is considered as high level task. It will be analyzed whether the difference between boys and girls grows with increasing difficulty of the tasks. Furthermore it is examined if the different topics of the examination tests cause higher differences between the results of these two groups. Under the aspect of fair conditions for all students the test items will be observed to show if they cause differences between boys and girls.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Angoff, W. H. (1993). Perspectives on differential item functioning methodology. In P. W. Holland & H. Wainer (Eds.), Differential Item Functioning (pp. 3–23). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Drechsel, B., & Artelt, C. (2007). Lesekompetenz. In M. Prenzel, C. Artelt, J. Baumert, W. Blum, M. Hammann, E. Klieme, & R. Pekrun (Eds.), PISA 2006. Die Ergebnisse der dritten internationalen Vergleichsstudie (pp. 225–248). Münster u.a.: Waxmann. Hornberg, S., Valtin, R., Potthoff, B., Schwippert, K., & Schulz-Zander, R. (2007). Lesekompetenzen von Jungen und Mädchen im internationalen Vergleich. In W. Bos, S. Hornberg, K.-H. Arnold, G. Faust, L. Fried, E.-M. Lankes, … (Eds.), IGLU 2006. Lesekompetenzen von Grundschulkindern in Deutschland im internationalen Vergleich (pp. 195–223). Münster u.a.: Waxmann. Klieme, E. (2003). Zur Entwicklung nationaler Bildungsstandards: Eine Expertise (Stand Juni 2003). BMBF-Bildungsreform: Vol. 1. Bonn: BMBF, Referat Öffentlichkeitsarbeit. Lenzen, D., & Blossfeld, H.-P. (2009). Geschlechterdifferenzen im Bildungssystem: Jahresgutachten 2009 (1st ed.). Jahresgutachten. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften / GWV Fachverlage GmbH Wiesbaden. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-91835-8. OECD (2010). PISA 2009 Ergebnisse. Was Schülerinnen und und Schüler wissen und können: Schülerleistungen in Lesekompetenz, Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften (Bd. 1). Bielefeld: Bertelsmann. Retrieved from http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=3548688&prov=M&dok_var=1&dok_ext=htm.
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