Nationella prov - vän eller fiende?

The purpose of this essay was to investigate how teachers’ assessments in the Swedish Upper Secondary School are affected by the national tests in English language courses. By conducting a qualitative investigation in the shape of interviews with six teachers, I aimed to show how the teachers feel that their profession is affected by the national testing, whether it is positive or negative. This was done whilst also examining the national tests within the context of school-developmental theory and assessment theory. The Swedish School Inspectorate have shown repeatedly in reports that there is a great discrepancy regarding how students are assessed on a school-to-school basis which is something that they wish to inhibit, as the Swedish school-system encourages equivalency-based assessment. The national tests also tend to add stress both due to the additional workload that the teachers experience, but also for the students who feel pressured to perform well under difficult testing situations. Since national testing in English is an annual assessment in Sweden teachers are continuously exposed to an additional workload at the end of each school year, whilst still being expected to handle their regular workload. To investigate how teachers feel about the national tests in regards to how they perform their final assessments can therefore be of importance, as it can provide us with an additional viewpoint as to explain how or why national testing is or is not working in its current state. The results of the study show that although teachers find the national tests helpful since it provides them with additional material for assessment, the stress and additional workload does not outweigh the positives. There is also a tendency expressed that the national tests tend to confirm what previous material has already shown regarding students. One suggestion for how the national tests can be bettered is to centralize marking, as that would allow teachers to focus on teaching rather than worry about marking. Overall, the results therefore show a negative impact on the teachers’ work