Comparing Danish and Swedish versions of PISA scientific literacy

• This paper presents a comparison between the Swedish, Danish, English, and French versions of three scientific literacy test-units from the released PISA items 2006. More specifically it compares how different words and concepts have been translated in the Swedish and Danish tests, compared to the English and French original versions. Differences that occur as a result of the translation process concerning words’ meaning are demonstrated. The possible consequences of such differences are exemplified by an excerpt from a situation in which Swedish 15-year-old students collaboratively worked with these three PISA units. In the paper we claim that in spite of detailed and strongly controlled methods for achieving translations of high standard used by the PISA, important and perhaps even decisive, differences between the four versions exist

Nyckelord

PISA

scientific literacy

Translation issues

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)