How authentic are assessments in vocational education?An analysis from Chilean teachers, students, and examinations.

Authentic assessment promotes professional skills, bridging the gap between
academic knowledge and real-world scenarios. Given the challenges faced
by vocational education in Chile, there is a keen interest in assessment
methods within both secondary schools and higher education institutions.
A non-experimental quantitative design was employed. The methodological
approach used was a cross-sectional survey. The study’s sample included
244 students, 37 teachers, and a compilation of 905 questions sourced from
written examinations. The findings reveal certain disparities in perspectives
between teachers, students, and the examinations reviewed. On one hand,
secondary vocational education teachers perceive the quality of assessments to
exceed those of their counterparts in higher vocational education. Conversely,
students in higher vocational education express a heightened sense of depth
and engagement in their learning compared to their secondary vocational
education peers. Upon examination of the assessments, it becomes evident
that while written examinations are more prevalent in secondary vocational
schools, these often involve open-ended and analytical inquiries. In contrast,
higher vocational education institutions predominantly rely on closed-response
questions that lean toward rote memorization. However, when these questions
are open-ended, they are more oriented toward the transfer of knowledge
compared to the secondary vocational education level. The level of realism is
more pronounced in higher vocational education than in secondary vocational
education. Both educational tiers exhibit gaps in attaining the principles of
authentic assessment.