Washback Effect of Examination: A Case of Reading, Writing, and Critical Thinking
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of English Education
Abstract
The present study entitled “Washback Effect of Examinations: A Case of Reading,
Writing, and Critical Thinking” was carried out to investigate the washback effect
of exam. The course ‘Reading, Writing and Critical Thinking’ is one of the courses
prescribed for B.Ed. 1st year majoring English. In order to collect the data, both
the primary and secondary sources were used. For this process, I selected fifty
students of B.Ed. 2nd year majoring English and ten teachers teaching the course
in five different education campuses of the Kathmandu Valley. Moreover, the
questions asked in the previous examinations (2066 and 2067) were collected and
analyzed on the basis of the specified objectives in the course and finally, thirty
classes were observed. Questionnaires were distributed to the selected students and
teachers. After collecting the data and responses, they were analyzed and
interpreted and then recommendations were put on the basis of the findings. The
major findings of the study were: the teaching learning process was exam oriented, lecture method was widely used, previously asked questions encouraged the
students to guess the future questions, teachers were not trained, instructional
materials were not used in the classroom and evaluation system was not effective.
The study is divided into four chapters. The first chapter consists of the
background, quality of good test, introduction of the course, review of the related
literature, objectives and significance of the study. The second chapter deals with
the methodology adopted to carry out the research work. The third chapter presents
the analysis and interpretation of the data. The last chapter includes the findings of
the study and some important recommendations are made on the basis of the
findings.