Figure 10: A listening test question in the CSAT
Listen to the dialogue and choose the best answer to what the man says.
Woman: ____________________________________- I hope you’ll understand money doesn’t matter.
- It doesn’t sound easy, but it must be rewarding.
- More and more people enjoy hiking these days.
- I’m glad I can work with you at the same company.
- It’s a good idea to have a picnic at the nearby park.
Source: CSAT website, http://www.kice.re.kr
The results of school mid-year and final examinations provide teachers with
useful information when making decisions on their use of teaching methods,
materials, tests, teaching aids, etc. Likewise, the information from the NAEA
results is fed back into curriculum evaluation and revision. The results of school
tests also provide information for a students’ academic record, which affects
whether or not the students can enter higher education institutions. CSAT
results have a very powerful influence on whether or not students can enter
university, and which university. Given that the main goal of many students is
to get good results on the CSAT, schools tend to focus on preparing students
for this. There has been a lot of controversy, however, about the negative
effect CSAT has on teaching and learning in primary and secondary school
education.
In situations where candidates applying to prestigious universities
outnumber places the universities can accommodate, the most important
factor in the principles of good assessment seems to be reliability, which
refers to the consistency of test scores (Coombe, Folse, and Hubley, 2007).
Students, teachers, head teachers, and parents are exposed to an arena of
competition to get better scores in such high-stakes tests. This has a negative
effect on changes in pedagogy, pushing students into rote learning and test-
taking strategies. In such cases there seems to be no place for performance
assessment designed to assess the development of students’ non-cognitive
skills.
Studies of the impact of the revised curriculum on assessment (Cho, et al.,
2012; Kim, et al., 2013; Yang, et al., 2011) indicate that teachers perceive
process-oriented performance assessment as having more positive effects
on the acquisition of ‘creativity and personality’ skills promoted by the 2009