TY - GEN

T1 - “Oral exam is an art form” – Danish Upper Secondary Students Attending Oral Exams in History and English

AU - Isager, Julie Marie

PY - 2021/8/11

Y1 - 2021/8/11

N2 - The presentation focuses on oral examination in Danish upper secondary high school from a studentperspective. Since official law documents regarding oral exams are vague about what the exams areassessing, the aim of the paper is to investigate case-students’ processes preparing for the oralexams and their investigations of its criteria. Theoretical concepts are Bitzer’s Rhetorical situation’sdemand for a ‘fitting response’(Bitzer, 1968), and Moje’s concept of student navigations in adisciplinary literacy-framework (Moje, 2013). By analyzing data from a five-month fieldwork coveringstudent interviews, students’ written notes, classroom and exam observation, I ask: What is a fittingresponse at the oral exam in the disciplines of History and English? How do students navigate thecomplexities of the exam response?In oral History-exam, the student gets 10-15 pages of unknown historical source material and has 24hours of preparation to define questions and answer them in a presentation and a dialogue with twoteacher-assessors for 20 minutes. Oral exam in English gives the student 60 minutes to read andanalyze an unknown English text before the exam.Oral examinations have only been researched sporadically in Denmark (Nissen, 2019) and onlyscattered internationally (Dobson, 2007; Joughin, 2003; Kvifte, 2011; Maugesten, 2011). Thecontribution of this study is to investigate the complexities of the intersection and transitionbetween classroom teaching and assessment.Results show that students struggle to express what a fitting exam response is. One case-studentnavigates the policy documents and the stated criteria in the classroom context, while the secondcase-student navigates by observing classroom interactions and feels criteria rather than expressesthem. The third case-student was frustrated since neither documents or classroom practices wereuseful in her navigation towards a fitting exam response. Respecting the disciplinary boundariesproved important, even though this was never stated.

AB - The presentation focuses on oral examination in Danish upper secondary high school from a studentperspective. Since official law documents regarding oral exams are vague about what the exams areassessing, the aim of the paper is to investigate case-students’ processes preparing for the oralexams and their investigations of its criteria. Theoretical concepts are Bitzer’s Rhetorical situation’sdemand for a ‘fitting response’(Bitzer, 1968), and Moje’s concept of student navigations in adisciplinary literacy-framework (Moje, 2013). By analyzing data from a five-month fieldwork coveringstudent interviews, students’ written notes, classroom and exam observation, I ask: What is a fittingresponse at the oral exam in the disciplines of History and English? How do students navigate thecomplexities of the exam response?In oral History-exam, the student gets 10-15 pages of unknown historical source material and has 24hours of preparation to define questions and answer them in a presentation and a dialogue with twoteacher-assessors for 20 minutes. Oral exam in English gives the student 60 minutes to read andanalyze an unknown English text before the exam.Oral examinations have only been researched sporadically in Denmark (Nissen, 2019) and onlyscattered internationally (Dobson, 2007; Joughin, 2003; Kvifte, 2011; Maugesten, 2011). Thecontribution of this study is to investigate the complexities of the intersection and transitionbetween classroom teaching and assessment.Results show that students struggle to express what a fitting exam response is. One case-studentnavigates the policy documents and the stated criteria in the classroom context, while the secondcase-student navigates by observing classroom interactions and feels criteria rather than expressesthem. The third case-student was frustrated since neither documents or classroom practices wereuseful in her navigation towards a fitting exam response. Respecting the disciplinary boundariesproved important, even though this was never stated.

UR - https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/publications/3b7c273a-96a4-422d-99de-33680cb89efc

M3 - Article in proceedings

BT - QUINT PhD Summer Institute 2021, Oslo, Norway, 30/08/2021

ER -