Examination of social studies teachers and secondary school students' experiences of common exams consisting of open-ended questions

Within the scope of the research purpose, the opinions of social studies teachers and secondary school (5th, 6th and 7th grade) students regarding the use of open-ended questions while applying common written exams, which is one of the changes in the 2023 measurement and evaluation guidelines published by the Ministry of National Education, were examined. In this direction, in the research, the thoughts of teachers on open-ended exams, how they evaluated the process, which sources they used and their views on this decision were examined. In the process of scoring and evaluating open-ended questions, teachers take the answer keys and rubric-based evaluation methods as a basis, and evaluate the students' interpretation skills and efforts into account. However, it has been stated that difficulties such as objectivity problems, the length of the evaluation process and non-standard scoring are experienced. When the open-ended exams are examined in terms of accountabiility, it is seen that most teachers share their answer keys with students after the exam and share information with student parents when necessary. While some students think that open-ended exams require more studies and are more effective in measuring knowledge, some students have expressed the opinion that these exams are incompatible with LGS (High School Entrance Exam), contain a rote system and are more challenging than previous exams. The vast majority of students stated that the hybrid exam model, which combines both multiple choice and open-ended questions, would be more suitable.