Pre-service teachers’ attitudes and knowledge of international large-scale assessments and their role in school quality assurance

Podgornik, Vesna (author), Matjašič, Miha (author), Vošnjak, Matej (author), Vogrinc, Janez (author)

International large-scale assessments such as PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS, and TALIS are among the most important tools available to policymakers and educational stakeholders for informing evidence-based decision-making in quality assurance processes. However,little is known about how pre-service teachers understand and evaluate the usefulness of this research. This study investigated preservice teachers' attitudes towards the role of international large-scale assessments in quality assurance processes, as well as their factual knowledge in this field. We conducted a web-based survey of 85 master’s students, which included an attitude scale and a knowledge test. The results showed that participants generally expressed positive attitudes towards using international large-scale assessment results in quality processes, but their factual knowledge was low. Furthermore, we found that factual knowledge did not differ significantly between students with very positive and those with less positive attitudes, as the Mann–Whitney test was not statistically significant (p = .186) and the effect size was small (r = .16; PS = .582). These findings indicate a gap between endorsement of international large-scale assessments and the knowledge required for informed use, suggesting that initial teacher education should integrate compulsory, practice-oriented international large-scale assessment literacy (e.g., interpreting national reports, subgroup gaps, and translating results into lesson planning and school self-evaluation).

• Language: English
• Keywords: international large-scale assessments, PISA, pre-service teachers, school quality assurance, teacher education
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 603-616
• Numbering: Vol. 15, iss. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179668
• UDC: 37.011.3-051
• ISSN on article: 2165-8714
• DOI: 10.12973/eu-jer.15.2.603
• COBISS.SI-ID: 268919555
• Publication date in RUL: 19.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: European journal of educational research
• Publisher: Eurasian Society of Educational Research
• ISSN: 2165-8714
• COBISS.SI-ID: 19227400

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: bodoči učitelji, stališča, znanje, mednarodna ocenjevalna lestica, zagotavljanje kakovosti, izobraževanje učiteljev

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0451
• Name: Strategije vzgoje in izobraževanja za trajnostni razvoj ob uporabi inovativnih na učečega osredinjenih izobraževalnih pristopov