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Home> Archive> 2012> Volume 2 Number 1 (Jan. 2012)
IJSSH 2012 Vol.2(1): 70-74 ISSN:2010-3646
DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2012.V2.71

Teachers’ Perceptions of High-Stakes Tests: A Washback Study

Hadi Salehi, Melor Md Yunus, and Zeinab Salehi

Abstract—The study of high-stakes tests and various effects of such tests is an educational need and it is recommended by curriculum planners and educational researchers. This paper, therefore, aimed to explore the effects of the Iranian universities entrance exam on the high school English teachers. The Entrance Exam of the Universities (EEU) in Iran is a multiple-choice competitive high-stakes test that affects the teachers, students, parents and even other stakeholders. This negative or positive effect, generally known as wash back, depends on the test itself, the curriculum, the stakeholders, and even the aim and scope of the test. To investigate the teachers’ perceptions of the EEU wash back effect, a validated survey questionnaire was administered to stratified random sample of 132 high school English teachers who were teaching in the five main educational districts in the city of Isfahan, Iran. The descriptive data analysis revealed that little attention was given to three language skills of speaking, writing, and listening in the classroom as these skills are not tested in the EEU. Moreover, the EEU negatively and implicitly influences English teachers to teach to the test format.

Index Terms—Entrance exam of the universities (EEU), high-stakes test, wash back, stakeholder, english teacher

Hadi Salehi and Zeinab Salehi are with Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran (e-mail: hadisalehi1358@yahoo.com, zeinab.salehi1364@yahoo.com)
Melor Md Yunus is with Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (e-mail: melor@ukm.my).

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Cite: Hadi Salehi, Melor Md Yunus, and Zeinab Salehi, "Teachers’ Perceptions of High-Stakes Tests: A Washback Study,"  International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 70-74, 2012.

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