Abstract:

Slovak education system is based on the normative evaluation forms favouring summative evaluation of education (Shewbridge, C., Bruggen, J., Nusche, D. and P. Wright. (2014), OECD Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education: Slovak Republic 2014, OECD Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education, OECD Publishing, Paris). The OECD evaluation team noted that summative evaluation prevails in Slovakia, such as quizzes, followed by formal tests at the end of a unit which main purpose is to provide the basis for the choice of marks awarded to pupils at the end of each term. Feedback is limited mostly to what the pupil should be better at, rather than on how the pupil can achieve this improvement. The OECD evaluation team pointed out that regular assessment of pupils in Slovakia is not formative enough, and that there also exists a strong need for feedback to pupils in order to improve their learning. The evaluation team suggests that "elements of formative assessment" should be introduced into the Slovak education system, since these elements can capture not only "what" and "with what result” pupils learn, but also "how" they learn.

Therefore, the aim of the research was to map out the state of formative assessment and its use in teaching in Slovakia with teachers of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Informatics, i.e. whether teachers use only traditional methods of evaluation leading to summative assessment, or also various forms of formative assessment. The research was conducted during the school year 2017/2018. The survey was conducted on a sample of more than 700 teachers from Slovak schools. Respondents were provided with an electronic questionnaire that had been created as a part of a national project called “IT Academy – education for the 21st century”. To test the relationship between variables in the set hypotheses, we used chi-squared test and we also examined the relationships between variables using the Spearman correlation coefficient (rho). The research results have pointed out that the teachers of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Informatics in Slovakia use mainly summative assessment tools in teaching (tests, short quizzes, homework) as well as formative assessment tools. The very concept of "formative assessment" is new for many teachers – they do not understand it, they do not know formative assessment tools and their functions. The idea of some teachers about forms of formative assessment such as self-assessment and peer assessment – is wrong.

All of this implies a need to not only educate teachers in the methods of active learning, but also to pay attention to strategies connected with evaluation, especially formative assessment of the pupils‘ learning process. This can be achieved by organizing trainings focused on formative assessment methods in teaching.

Acknowledgements:
This paper was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences – grant VEGA 1/0265/17 “Formative Assessment in Teaching of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Informatics.”

Keywords:

Formative assessment, survey, teacher attitudes.