Turkish Teachers’ Assessment Situations: A Study on Exam Papers

This study aims to examine Turkish exam papers of the students, who study in the secondary school of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th classes. The exam papers have been examined from various aspects, including the number and type of questions, the language expression and distribution of the questions, the cognitive level (according to the Bloom’s taxonomy), the type of texts used, and the visuals use. The samples of the study were selected using convenience sampling method from 17 secondary schools located in the center of Ağrı Province in Turkey and the exam papers prepared by 36 Turkish teachers who worked at these schools. The tests which were examined included 2633 questions in 161 exam papers. We also developed “the Exam Paper Examination Form” for collecting more data which we analyzed and interpreted by using the document analysis model. According to the results obtained, it has been found that the teachers mostly prefer to use the multiple-choice question type in the Turkish exam papers; the questions are mostly related to grammar and reading; the teachers do not prefer to ask questions on speaking and listening; and except for spelling errors no deficiency is detected in the language of the exam papers. In addition, according to Bloom’s taxonomy, the questions are mostly at the comprehension level whereas questions related to the analyzing, evaluating and creating levels that require high level thinking skills are rarely used. Based on the results, suggestions have been presented for Turkish teachers to prepare exams.