Vocational High School Teachers' and Students' Opinions about Performance Tasks

Abstract

The aim of the study is to determine the opinions of teachers and students in a Vocational High School about performance tasks. This study was carried out with 17 vocational high school students and 13 teachers. This study was conducted through qualitative research design by analyzing the records of the individuals who shared their own interviews, observations and documents. The data were analyzed through content analysis. The first codes were generated for each question and the collected data were arranged in an inducible approach by determining appropriate themes for these codes. All the codes and themes were checked by second researchers. Moreover, the consistency in coding was determined. In addition to the interviews, observations and document analysis were performed. The results of this study demonstrate that both the students and the teachers do not have sufficient knowledge about what the performance task is and how it is carried out. Therefore, the performance tasks carried out do not reach their goals. Performance tasks should measure higher order thinking, and they should be related to real life situations. The results of the study show that performance tasks do not demonstrate these features. In addition, students should have knowledge and understanding of the subjects in order to complete their performance tasks. On the other hand, they are supposed to perform a performance task about a subject which they mostly do not understand or they do not know. This may be the reason why performance task does not reach its goal.