217 Preliminary communication UDC 37.091.27:51(045) UPPER-SECONDARY TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE MATURA EXAM IN MATHEMATICS Amanda Glavaš 1 , Ljerka Jukić Matić 2 , Sara Prša 3 1 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia 2 Department of Mathematics, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia 3 Strojarska i tehnička škola, Osijek, Croatia [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]Received: 4 February 2021 This paper reports a study on mathematics teachers’ perceptions of the Matura mathematics exam in Croatia. The study focuses on the suitability of mathematics school textbooks for students’ preparation for the exams, the complexity of the tasks in the exams, the grading and scoring of the exams, and teachers’ level of satisfaction with student achievement. The study used a convenience sampling method. It was conducted through a questionnaire administered to 308 upper secondary mathematics teachers. The findings showed that teachers do not perceive school textbooks as suitable resources to prepare for the higher level exam. Furthermore, the teachers believe that the test length is not appropriate i.e., the time given to students for the higher level exam is insufficient. On average they are satisfied with their students’ results, but are undecided about the criteria and scoring of the Matura. Vocational school teachers showed more dissatisfaction with the requirements and outcomes of the Matura exam compared to grammar school teachers. The results of this empirical study can be taken as a good starting point for re-assessing the requirements of the Matura exam in mathematics. Keywords: Matura exam, mathematics teacher, teacher attitudes, textbooks, school-leaving examination in mathematics
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PreliminarycommunicationUDC37.091.27:51(045)
UPPER-SECONDARY TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE MATURA EXAM IN MATHEMATICS
METODIČKI OGLEDI, 28 (2021) 1, 217–242A. Glavaš et al., Upper-secondary...
1. Introduction
Anationalsecondaryschool-leavingexamination,calledtheMa-tura,wasintroducedintheCroatianeducationalsystemin2010(NN,1/2013).Itisaformofgraduationofupper-secondaryschool,function-ingasanexit examfrom the secondaryeducationsystem(Holmeet�al.,2010).School-leavingexamsarealsoknownasexitexams,stategraduateexamsorcertificateexams.TheMaturaisanexternalexamconductedby theNationalCentre forExternalEvaluationofEduca-tion(NCVVO,2020).Inexternalexams,externalactorshavecontroloverthetestingprocessliketestdesign,assessment/scoring,useoftheresults/outcome,andtheindividualteachercannotobjecttohowtheseprocessesareimplemented(JonssonandLeden,2019).TheMaturaisalsoahigh-stakesexambecauseithasimportantconsequencesforstu-dentsonthebasisoftheirperformance,namelyithasanentrancefunc-tion to thedesiredhigher education institution.Lastly, theMatura isconductedinastandardisedmanner(Primoracet�al.,2009).Thismeansthatalltesttakershavetositforthesametestandunderthesamecon-ditions,sometimesalsoat thesametime(Jonsson andLeden,2019).Standardisationsecurescomparabilityamongthetesttakers.
MathematicsisoneofthecompulsorysubjectsintheMatura.Con-sideringthattheMaturawasimplementedmorethantenyearsagoandgiventhemultiplerolesithas,wearguethatitisimportanttoexaminehowmathematicsteachersviewtheexam.Therefore,weconductedastudy to investigatemathematics teachers’perceptionsof theMaturaexaminmathematicsintermsof:generalrequirements;themathemat-icstextbookused;studentachievementintheexam;andthecompat-ibilityofstudents’finalschoolgradesinmathematicswiththegradesachievedintheMaturamathematicsexam.
2. Matura in Croatia
2.1. General outline of the Matura exam in mathematics
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es),vocationalschools,andart schools.Vocationalschools last fromone tofiveyearsdependingon the typeofeducationprogrammere-quiredforaparticularprofession,i.e.thevocationalcurriculumforob-tainingaqualification.TheMaturaexamisnotmandatoryforstudentsinvocationalschools,butcanbe takenby thosestudentswhoattendfour-andfive-yearvocationalschools,whowanttocontinuetohighereducation.Studentswhocomplete four-year art schoolsmayalso sitfortheMaturaexams.TheMaturaisorganisedandconductedbytheNationalCentre forExternal Evaluation ofEducation,which is alsoresponsible formarking the exams and awarding grades.Grades areawardedaccordingtotheaverageofthepopulation’sresults,andtherearenopre-setcriteriaforpassingtheexam(NCVVO,2018).
MathematicsisoneofthecompulsoryexamsintheMatura.Itcanbetakenattwolevels:thehigherlevel(A)andthebasiclevel(B)(NCV-VO,2020).Studentsselectwhichleveloftheexamtotakebasedontherequirements of the higher education institution theywish to attend.Thehigherlevel(A)oftheMaturaexaminmathematicsalsoaffordsaccess to those institutions that require the basic level (B). Studentswhotakethebasiclevel(B)ofthemathematicsexamarenoteligibletoapplyforinstitutionswhichrequirethehigherlevel.Thehigherlevelexaminmathematicscorrespondstothemathscurriculumofgrammarschools (NCVVO, 2020).However, the number of hours taught dif-feraccordingtotheeducationprogrammeoftheschool.Forinstance,grammarschoolswithafocusonforeignlanguageshavemathematicsthreehoursperweekforallfouryears.Grammarschoolsspecializedinmathematicshaveatleastfourhoursofmathematicsperweekforallfouryears.However, thehigher levelexaminmathematicsalsocor-respondstomostfour-yearvocationalschoolprogrammeswheremath-ematicsis taughtat least threehoursperweek(NCVVO,2020).Thebasic level exam inmathematics corresponds to the cross-section ofotherfour-yearuppersecondaryprogrammeswheremathematicshastheminimalnumberofhoursperweek.Forcomparison, some four-yearvocationalschoolshavemathematicstwohoursperweekforallfour yearswhich places vocational students in a difficult position intermsofaccesstothehigherlevelMaturaexaminmathematics.
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levelexamhas28tasksintotal–16multiplechoiceand12shortan-swersandparticipantscanachieveamaximumof40points.Thehigherlevel examhas30 tasks in threecategories–15multiplechoice,13shortanswersand2longanswersandparticipantscanachieveamaxi-mumof60points.
Ourliteraturesearchshowsthat thenumberofstudiesrelatedtoMaturaexams is small.Studies that examine themathematics teach-
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ers’role,beliefsorpractices in thecontextof theMatura,arepracti-callynon-existent.MathematicsteachersworkwithstudentsteachingthemandpreparingthemfortheMaturaexamthroughupper-secondaryschool,butalsohavetheopportunitytoparticipateinthedevelopmentoftasksfortheMaturaexams,toreviewexammaterialsandmarktheexampapers(thetasksthatrequireshortandlonganswers)everyyear.Accordingly,wedesignedastudythataimedtocoverteachers’opin-ionsandattitudesaboutseveralaspectsoftheMaturaexaminmath-ematics.Theresearchfociofthisstudyareonteachers’opinionsandattitudesconcerning:
–thedesignofMaturamathematicsexamsovertheyears–scoringintheMaturaexaminmathematics–satisfactionwiththeresultsobtainedbytheirstudents.Moreover,weare interested in lookingat teachers’opinionsand
Oursecondresearchthemeisconcernedwithteachers’perceptionsoftheMaturaexaminmathematicsovertheyears.Thisthemeisap-proached from the perspective of task design inmathematics educa-tionanditscomplexity.Theterm‘complexity’refers to theextent towhichthetaskdiffersfromperformingasimplecalculationtoacom-plexsynthesisintegratingproblemsolving,communicating,reasoning,andmakingconnections(Suurtammet�al.,2016). Mathematicsteach-ersshouldbeawareofMaturaexamtaskfeatures,nottoteach�to�the�test,buttoenhancetheirteachingpracticeifnecessaryandtopreparestudents for theMaturaexamadequately.Moreover, acomponentofteachingmathematicsisrelatedtotheselection,modification,design,utilizationandevaluationoftasks(Dietekeret�al.,2018)andsuchworkisachievedusingthetextbooksorothercurriculummaterials,suchaspastpapersoftheexam.
The catalogue of the Matura exam in mathematics (NCVVO,2020)prescribeswhichmathematicaldomainsandassociatedlearningoutcomesmayappear,butnotwhatmustappearintheexam.Thisalsocontributestotaskdesignanditscomplexity.
3.3. Grades awarded by teachers and external evaluation
The third research theme in our study is concerned with scor-ing in theMaturaexams inmathematicsand, consequently,with thegradesstudentsobtainintheexamandthoseawardedbytheteacher.Thereliabilityofateacher’sgradeisimportantforschools,teachers,families, and students. Some studies have examined the relationshipbetween thegradesgivenby the teachersandsomeformofexternalexamination. Inoneway, the teachers’gradesaremore reliable thanoutsidemeasurebecauseof theirholisticnature, i.e. the teacherscanmakereliablejudgementsaboutstudentachievementbecauseoftheirinteractionswithstudentsovertime(Marlowet�al.,2014).Incontrast,formalassessmentcanbeconsideredmoreaccurateandobjectivethan
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3.4. The impact of students’ Matura exam results on teachers
Ourfourthresearch themeisconcernedwith teachersatisfactionwithstudents’resultsattheMaturaexaminmathematics.Theresultsofsuchahigh-stakesexamcanhavevariousconsequencesforteachers.Somecountries implementedpolicies to evaluate teachers’ effective-nessbasedontheirstudents’examresults.Thismeansthatteachersarebeingheldaccountableforstudentsuccess.Suchpoliciescontributetoanincreaseinjob-relatedstressexperiencedbyteachers(e.g.Ryanet�al.,2017)andhaveanegativeeffectonteacherself-efficacy(Abramset�al.,2003).Moreover, teachersoften feeluncomfortableorhumili-atedwhen their students’passing ratesarepresentedat schoolmeet-ings(Booher-Jennings,2005).Sometimeslowpassingscoresresultinpenaltiesforteachers(vonderEmbseet�al.,2016).Ontheotherhand,teachers’dissatisfactionwithstudents’resultscanleadtothenarrow-ingofthecurriculumandteachingonlytothetest(e.g.Abramset�al.,2003).InCroatia,teachersarenotpenalisedforstudents’lowscoresintheMatura,butitispossiblethattheresultsimpacttheirself-efficacyandteachingpractice.
4. Methodology
4. 1. Participants and data collection
Thestudypresentedinthispaperwasconductedin2019,usingaconveniencesamplingmethod(Cohen�et�al.,2018).The teachers forthestudywererecruitedthrougharesearchparticipationpoolatalo-caluniversitywheremanyteachersparticipatedinmathematicsprofes-sionaldevelopmentworkshopsorconferences.Wesentanemailtotheparticipantswith a link to the digital formof the questionnaire.Theparticipants’responseswerecollectedanonymously,meaningthatwedidnotcollectanyinformationthatcouldrevealtheteacher’sidentity
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suchasname, email address,ornameof the school.Data collectionbeganattheendofJuly2019andlastedforamonth.Completionofthequestionnairetookabout15minutes.
We took care that the sample of teachers for the study to someextentagreeswith theofficialdataonstudentswho took theMaturaexam inmathematics in2018.Thereforeparticipantswereasked so-cio-demographicquestionsthatprovidedinformationontheirgender,yearsofservice,careeradvancement,typeofschooltheyworkat,andwhethertheycorrectedMaturaexams(Table1).Among392uppersec-ondary school programmes inCroatiawhose students took the stategraduationexamin2019,189(48%)aregrammarschools,and203(52%)arevocational schools (MZO,2018).Thesampleof teacherswhoparticipatedinthisstudyagreeswiththistosomeextent:51%oftheteachersworkinvocationalschools,andtherestworkingrammarschools.Morethan40%oftheteachersparticipatedinmarkingMaturaexamsinmathematics.Giventheinformationwehaveabouttheteach-erswhoparticipatedinthestudy,webelievetheirattitudesandopinionsareagoodrepresentationofupper-secondarymathematicsteachersinCroatia.
Table 1.Informationabouttheparticipants
Participant information N (%)
Gender
Female 268(87%)
Male 40(13%)
Typeofschool
Grammar(non-mathematics) 112(36%)
Grammar(mathematics) 38(12%)
Vocational 158(51%)
Teachingexperience
<5years 37(12%)
6-15years 95(30%)
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16-25 84(27%)
26-34 71(23%)
35+ 21(7%)
Teacherpromotion
Nopromotion 168(54.4%)
Teachermentor 90(29.2%)
Teacheradviser 50(16.2%)
ExperienceinmarkingMaturaexams
Participant 130(42%)
Non-participant 178(58%)
4.2. Instrument
Wedesignedaquestionnairethatsoughttocaptureallrelevantas-pectsof the research themes.Thequestionnaire (Appendix,Table2)contained32itemstodeterminetheopinionsandattitudesofmathe-maticsteacherson:thesuitabilityofschooltextbooksforstudentprepa-rationfortheexam;thedesignandcomplexityoftasksintheMaturaexamovertime;thequalityofpassingcriteriaandscoringmethodsfortheMaturaexaminmathematics;andteachersatisfaction.Eachitemwastobeevaluatedonafive-pointLikert-typescalewhere1=stronglydisagreeand5=stronglyagree.Theresult isexpressedas themeanvalueoftheresponse.
The questionnairewas designed exclusively for the purposes ofthisstudy,thusitwasnecessarytoperformanexploratoryfactoranaly-sis(EFA)usingtheprincipalaxisfactoring(PAF)methodbeforepro-cessing the data. Initially, all itemswere examined and this resultedin recoding items 11 and 22.TheKaiser-Meyer-Olkin andBartlett’stest(0.876,p=0.000)wereusedtoexaminetheadequacyofthedata.Weretainedfivefactorswhosecharacteristicrootsexceed1.Thefac-torsobtainedbytheanalysisofthemaincomponentsexplainatotalof63.21%ofthevarianceofthemanifestvariables.
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exam(items1–4).Thesecondfactorrelatestoteachers’opinionsonthesuitabilityofthetextbooksusedtopreparestudentsforthehigherlevelMaturaexam(items5–8).Thethirdfactor,whichreferstothedesignoftheMaturaexamovertime,consistsof4items(recoded11,15,18,19).Thefourthfactorconsistsoffiveitems(23,25,26,27,29),andreferstotheteachers’opinionaboutthescoringoftheMaturaexam.Thefifthfactor, referring to the criteria of theMatura exam, consists of threeitems(20,21,24).TherotatedfactormatrixcanbeseeninTable3.
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However,thefactoranalysisexcludedalargenumberofitems(9,10,12,13,14,16,17,22,28,30,31,32),whichwefindrelevant toour study, thereforewe included them in the results section aswell.Dataanalysisincludeddescriptiveanalysis,ANOVAvarianceanalysis,Games-HowellandBonferroniposthocpairedcomparisons,t-testandcorrelations.TheanalysiswasperformedintheSPSS.
5. Results and discussion
Inthispart,wepresenttheresultsonmathematicsteachers’opin-ionsandattitudesconcerningfouraspectsoftheMaturaexaminmath-ematics:thesuitabilityofcurrentlyvalidtextbooks(variablesTextbookA&TextbookB);thedesignoftheexamovertime(variableDesign,Items9,10,12,13,16&17);scoringandcriteriaforpassing(variableScoring,variableCriteria,Items22,28,30);andtheteachers’satisfac-tionwith the students’ results (Items31&32).Descriptive statisticsfornewvariablesandotheritemscanbeseeninTable4.ProportionalresponsedistributionsfortheItems9,10,12,13,16,17,22,28,30,31&32arepresentedinFigure2.Inthefollowingsubsectionswepresentresultsinmoredetail.
In this section,we describe results for the variablesTextbook�A (Cronbach’sα=0.918)andTextbook�B�(α=0.921)onteachers’opin-ionsonthesuitabilityofschool textbooksforpreparingstudents(in-dependentlyandwith the teacher’shelp) for thehigher levelMaturaexam (A) and for the basic level (B), respectively.Teacher’ opinionisexaminedconcerningthetype,numberandappropriatenessoftext-booktasks.VariableTextbook�Awascreatedfromitems1–4,andText-book�B�fromitems5–8.Onaverage,teachersbelievethattextbooksare
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moresuitableforpreparingstudentsforthebasiclevel(M=3.76,SD=1.08)thanforthehigherlevel(M=3.11,SD=1.10).Theanalysisalsoshowedastatisticallysignificantdifferenceinopiniononthesuitabilityof textbooks for taking thehigherandbasic levelof theMatura (t=-12.731,df=307,p<0.001).
Also, there are statistically significant differences between theteachers from vocational and non-mathematics specialized grammarschoolswhenitcomestothesuitabilityoftextbooksforthebasiclevel(Table5).TheteachersfromvocationalschoolsassessedthesuitabilityoftextbooksforpreparationfortheMaturawithalowerscore(Table6, p=0.008).Therewerenostatisticallysignificantdifferenceswithregardtothetypeofschooltheyworkatandthesuitabilityoftextbooksforthepreparationforthehigherlevel(Table5).
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differenceintheteachers’responsesdependingonthetypeofschoolatwhichtheyteach(Table5).Forthislevelexam,teachersbelievethatthetimelengthissufficient(Item17,M=4.39,SD=0.95),anddonotconsiderthattasksaretoodemanding(Item13,M=1.72,SD=0.99).However, the teachers’ responses to this question differ significantlydependingonthetypeofschoolatwhichtheywork(Table5).Thereisstatistically significantdifferencebetween teachersofvocationalandnon-mathematicsgrammarschools (Table6,p=0.030);namelyteach-ersfromthevocationalschoolsdisagreewiththestatementtoalesserextent,meaning that thebasic level is challenging for their students.This is also supported, for instance, bypsychometric analysis of theMaturaexamfor2018(Bugarin,et�al.,2020)whichshowedthat thebasiclevelwasquitedifficultforexamcandidates.Vocationalschoolstudentsconstitutedaround70%ofthosecandidates.
Teachers believe that the higher level exam ismore appropriateforgrammar schools thanvocational schools (Item9,M=4.06,SD=1.07).Onaverage,theyareundecidedaboutthelengthoftheexam(Item16,M=3.28,SD=1.39),but thereexists statistically signifi-cantdifferencebetweentheteachersfromnon-mathematicsgrammarschoolsandmathematicsgrammarschools(Table6,p=0.001);name-ly, teacherswhowork in non-mathematics grammar schools believethatnotenoughtimeisgivenforthehigherlevelexam.Itseemsthatteacherswouldproposeanincreaseinthedurationofthehigherlevelexam.But an increase in the amount of time allocated for the exammayaffectstudents’performance.Somestudiesexaminedhowextend-edconditionsaffectstudents.Laitusiset�al.(2007)foundthatstudentstakingahigh-stakesexamunderextended-timeconditions(i.e.,moretime-on-task,butnotmore items)experiencednodifference inexamperformance.Thiswouldappeartoconfirmtheteachers’viewthatstu-dents’performancewouldimproveiftheyhadmoretimetocompletetheexam.ButAckermanandKanfer(2009)cautionthatthereismuchtolearnabouthowstudentsregulatetheirefforttoachievehigherscoresdespitelongertestsessions.
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thetasksatthehigherleveltobetoodemanding,alsoconsiderthatthedurationoftheexamisinsufficient(Spearmanr =-0.344,p<0.001).ThiscorrespondstothepsychometricanalysisofdifficultyofMaturaexamsconductedbyNationalCentre(Kapovićet�al.,2019;Bugarin,et�al.,2020),whichshowedthatthehigherlevelexamsaremostlyofaveragedifficultywith an average task index at both levels between0.4and0.5.Thehigherlevelexaminmathematicsisthethresholdforstudentswhoenrolintechnicalandnaturalsciencestudyprogrammes.Thusthetasksshouldmoredemandingthantasksinthebasiclevel.Thequestionistowhatextent,ifteachersbelievethatthetextbookstheyusearenotsuitableforpreparingstudentsadequatelyfortheexam?
5.3. Scoring and the criteria for passing the Matura exams
ThevariableCriteria (α=0.78)examinestheteachers’opinionsontheexistingcriteriaforscoringtheMaturaexams,namelywhetherthecurrentscoringprovidesarealpictureofstudents’knowledgeandwhetheritcorrelateswiththeirgradingcriteria.Thevariablewascre-atedfromitems20,21,24.Itseemsthatteachersareundecidedwhethertheexistingscoringcriteriaareappropriate(M=3.34,SD=0.92).Giv-enthatitisdifficulttostudycriteriawithouttakingthescoringmethodintoaccount,wecreatedthevariableScoring(α=0.82).Thisvariablewas created from Items23, 25, 26, 27, 29.Herewe also found thatteachersareundecidedaboutscoringmethods(M=2.69,SD=0.86).Statisticallysignificantdifferencebetween the teachersdependingontheschoolwheretheyworkwasnotdetectedineithervariable(Table5).Onaverage,teachersareundecidedaboutwhethertasksshouldbescoredaseithercorrectorincorrect(Item22,M=2.94,SD=1.21)butbelievethatscoringtheentiresolutionprocedurewouldmakemarkingcomplicated(Item30,M=3.86,SD=1.14).
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longanswertaskswherethesolutionprocedureisalsoscored,notjustthesolution.MostteacherswereundecidedabouttheappropriatenessofthescoringoftheMaturaexams,butbelievethatscoringthesolutionprocedurewouldmakemarkingtheexamsmoredifficult.Incontrast,various researchershavepointedout that scoring the solutionproce-dure is beneficial from a psychometric perspective because a higherdistributionofpointspertaskincreasestestreliability(e.g.Ebel,1979).Withinmathematicseducation,someresearchers(SwanandBurkhardt,2012;Suurtammet�al.,2016)arguethattheexamitemsshouldprovidestudents an opportunity to demonstrate theirway of thinking i.e., toexplainandargumenttheirsolutions,eveniftheendresultisincorrect.Moreover,theyarguethatincreasingthenumberofpointsinthetasksallowsdifferentlevelsofachievementwhichwouldbeveryusefulinaccomplishingtheexitfunctionoftheMatura.Thefactthattheteach-ersareundecidedastowhethercurrentscoringgivesarealpictureofstudentknowledgeandabouttheappropriatenessofthescoring,showstheneedforrevisingthecurrentscoringmethodsintheMaturaexaminmathematics.
5.4. Satisfaction with the students’ results on the Matura exam
Inthissection,wedescribetheresultsforItems31and32whichare related to teacher satisfactionwith theMaturaexam.For thede-scriptivestatistics,wereferthereadertoTable4.
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theteachersfrommathematicsgrammarschoolsandnon-mathematicsgrammar schools (p = 0.006) and between teachers frommathemat-icsgrammarschoolsandvocationalschools(p=0.032).Furthermore,thereisastatisticallysignificantcorrelationbetweenteachers’opinionsregardingthesuitabilityoftextbooksforthehigherlevelandsatisfac-tionwith their students’ results (Spearman r = 0.238p < .001), andregardingthesuitabilityoftextbooksforthebasiclevelandsatisfactionwiththeirstudents’results(Spearmanr =0.244,p<0.001).
Moreover,vocationalschoolmathematicsteachers’opinionsofthetextbooks, thehigherandbasic levelexam,andstudentachievementcouldalsobeindicativeofstress-relatedissues.EventhoughtheMatu-raiselectiveinvocationalschool,thoseteachersfeelpressuretoensurethe successof their students.The studybyĆosić (2017) showed theMatura expanded subject teachers’ classroompractices in vocationalschools.Teachersfeltthatvocationalcurricula,whichhasfewerhoursandalightersubjectload,disadvantagedtheirstudentsindemonstrat-ing thekindofknowledgeandskill requiredat theMaturaexamina-tions.Additionally,theyfeltresponsibleforconvertingtheirstudents’learningintogoodMaturaresults.
Although the Matura is designed as a school-leaving exam forgrammarschoolstudents,whodonothaveanyvocationalqualificationonfinishingschoolandareexpectedtocontinuetheireducation,math-ematicsgrammarschoolstudentsmaychoosetotakethebasiclevelofthe exam.This shows thediscrepancybetween thedesign intentionsof theMaturaand theCroatianeducationalsystem.ManyvocationalschoolstudentstaketheMaturaeveryyear(Kapovićet�al.,2019;Buga-rinet�al., 2020),but somestudiesalready show that theirnumber isdecreasingincertainhighereducationinstitutions(Baketaet.�al,2020;Žauharet�al.,2016).
6. Conclusion
Thestudyreported in thispaperrepresents teachers’voicesonahigh-stakestestinCroatia.Teachersareasignificantfactorintheedu-cationsystemandtheiropinionsandattitudesabouthigh-stakestestsarereflectedintheirteachingpractice:inthestrategiestheyusetoworkwithstudentsintheclassroomorinthechoiceofcurriculummaterials(e.g.Au,2011;Leightonet�al.,2010).Therefore,itisimportanttoheartheirvoicesontheproblemstheyencountersuchasthesuitabilityofmathematics textbooks for students’exampreparation, students’ lack
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