STANDARDIZOVANI TESTOVI ZNANJA U ŠKOLAMA U SRBIJI: PRILOG ISTRAŽIVANJU KORISNOSTI NJIHOVIH REZULTATA

The paper presents the results of the research on teachers’ attitudes towards the potential of using the results of the final exam at the end of primary school education, national and international tests for improving: teaching content, methods of teaching, assessment, extracurricular work, professional development of teachers, school climate, and school equipment, and overcoming the differences among children of different genders and origins. The sample included 362 subject teachers. The teachers filled out 3 five-point descriptive scales that related to the potential of using the results of the final exam, national, and international tests for the school improvement. The results of the research show that the usefulness of the results of the final exam, national, and international tests is generally evaluated with higher grades regarding improvement of the content of teaching and assessment, whereas it is evaluated a bit lower in the domain of the school climate improvement and overcoming differences among the children. The results of the final exam are evaluated more favorably relating to improvement of teaching in comparison to national and international tests. The experience of independently designing knowledge tests, as well as defining the purpose of test implementation for formative evaluation, are factors relevant to shaping teachers’ attitudes toward the usefulness of test results. The survey is intended to initiate further research on teachers’ attitudes towards the results of the research in which standardized knowledge tests are used, due to the current lack of such research in our country.