Mastering the exam is a competence

By Caroline Zoffmann Jessen, czj@sdu.dk, 10/10/2024

All pupils in the primary school's oldest classes must take final exams in a wide range of subjects. There is a lot at stake for exams and exams and the results contribute to certifying and selecting students for higher education, which can have an impact on the students' future life path.

Exams also act as a practice that makes a subject's goals and identity visible and can potentially support students' learning and empowerment in a subject. The school's exams thus have a great influence on the school's practice, subjects and students.

There is a lot we don't know about exams: we don't know enough about the potential of working with exams to support students' well-being and learning, and the impact of exams on students' learning and well-being.

Exam as a social practice

The project 'Exam literacy as agency' - brings together researchers and teachers from three university colleges in Denmark in a project that aims to develop an understanding of the exam as a special form of knowledge and competence.

The goal is to strengthen the students' capacity to take part in the exam, as well as to strengthen the teachers' pedagogical approaches to exam preparation in the humanities subjects: Danish, History, Social Studies and Religion.

Exams are seen as a special social and linguistic practice. Passing the exam is closely linked to mastering the language of a subject, its writing and speaking styles, being able to handle the subject's issues and knowing norms for communication and participation in the subject. Therefore, the project works with subject-specific reading as a way of developing the students' knowledge, skills and commitment to the subjects.