Pixel International Conferences

Formative assessment is an active process by which teachers regularly check their pupils’ knowledge and understanding during classes and provide them with appropriate feedback. Teachers’ competence to apply different forms of assessment to pupils’ achievement influences pupils’ motivation to learn and individual achievement (Pejić Papak, Vujičić, Arrigoni, 2015). Encouraging pupils to engage in self-assessment involves active engagement of the learning subject is crucial for the pupil to take responsibility for his/her learning (Ilić, Šikl-Erski, 2018; Kalin & Čepić, 2019, Bursać, Dadić & Kisovar-Ivanda, 2016). This paper aims to examine teachers’ attitudes about the use of formative assessment and to determine the link between teacher attitudes and the frequency with which pupils use forms of assessment and self-assessment in educational practice. For this purpose, the Scale of Teachers' Beliefs about the Application of Formative Assessment was constructed, whereby teachers assessed their degree of agreement with the items on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The research comprised a sample of 115 elementary school classroom teachers from 12 elementary schools in three counties of the Republic of Croatia. Assessment sheets (protocols) were used to gain a deeper insight into teachers’ experiences in applying formative assessment and the collected data were processed through qualitative analysis. The results show that teachers emphasize the benefits of formative assessment, but at the same time do not feel fully competent to implement it, which affects the frequency with which various forms of formative assessment are applied. Most often, they use pupils’ self-assessment and peer assessment. They outline different ways of performing formative assessment through thought-out tasks, using both digital tools as innovative and student-oriented ways to test the adoption of learning outcomes. Teachers cite lack of time as the most aggravating factor in the quality of formative assessment during the class. There is a need for further professional development in strengthening the competences for the implementation of various forms of student-centered assessment.

Keywords: curriculum, formative assessment, self-assessment, pupils, teachers.

References:

[1] Bursać, L., Dadić, J. and Kisovar-Ivanda, T. (2016). Učeničkim samovrednovanjem do kvalitetnih učeničkih postignuća. Magistra Iadertina, 11(1), 73-88.
[2] Ilić, V. and Šikl-Erski, A. (2018). Osnove suvremenog sistema kompleksnog vrednovanja rada učenika. Znanje, 1, 159-167.
[3] Kalin, J. and Čepić, R. (2019) (Ed.). Poklicni razvoj učiteljev: Ugled in transverzalne kompetence (Teachers' professional development: Status and transversal competencies). Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, Rijeka: Učiteljski fakultet Sveučilišta u Rijeci.
[4] Pejić Papak, P., Vujičić, L., and Arrigoni, J. (2015). Teachers' Views on the Development of Personal Competences and Pupil Competences: Croatian Experiences. Journal of Education & Social Policy, 22(1), 20-29.