Abstract:

The pandemic situation in many countries led to the school closures. In Slovakia, in spring 2020 the schools were mostly closed for a longer period. The following years, face-to-face classes were accompanied by online teaching, which were in line with the quarantine principles introduced by the Ministry of Education. However, assessment procedures were significantly influenced by online teaching and therefore, other forms of assessment started to be in question.

In our study, we focused on different forms of learner-centred approaches to assessing learners’ competence in foreign languages. After introducing some of them in the academic course focused on pre-service teacher training, a questionnaire was given to student teachers to elicit information about their experiences with the presented ways of assessment. Although it was not expected that students would be very familiar with alternative, continuous assessment procedures, some open-ended questions dealt with the potentials of the mentioned approaches. In addition, the aim of the study was to find out the attitudes of student teachers in their pre-service teacher training programme – in their current position of being learners and at the same time student teachers.

The questionnaire will be analysed qualitatively as well as quantitatively to show learners’ as well as future teachers’ preferences. The drawbacks of alternative, continuous assessment that will arise during analysing questionnaires and discussions with the students in their dual roles will be explained in line with theoretical insights and practical implications.

Keywords:

Alternative assessment, learner-centred approaches, feedback.