Abstract:

This paper informs about the results of a research focused on the development of digital competences in pre-service as well as in-service teachers in accordance with the requirements provided in the European Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu). The presented research was focused on digital assessment in chemistry teaching education, specifically digital summative and formative assessment, and also identification of the opinions and attitudes of in-service chemistry teachers working at primary and high schools regarding the implementation of digital formative assessment.

The research sample consisted of first year master’s degree students of chemistry teaching combined (N=18) at the Faculty of Science, P. J. Šafárik University in Košice, Slovakia. The research took the form of a one-group quasi-experiment performed during the winter semester of the 2023/2024 academic year. The research focused on the primary and high school teachers (N=16) was carried out during the 2022/2023 school year. Scale questionnaires designed by the authors were used as research instruments.

The analysis of the research results yielded information about the methods and procedures, which can be useful in chemistry teaching education in the area of digital assessment.

Chemistry teaching education in this area should consists of the following phases:
1. Digital summative assessment: Firstly, pre-service teachers need to learn how tasks are designed based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy as well as the procedure of creating tasks with discontinuous text such as charts, tables, or models. Afterwards, they can proceed to use digital tools (Google Forms, Kahoot, Socrative) to create tests with tasks at the required cognitive level for the specific topics in chemistry. The educational outcome of this phase represents the ability to create a test using the selected digital tool and evaluate its field specific as well as methodological qualities.
2. Digital formative assessment: The formative assessment tools used most frequently by the teachers involved in this researched included self-assessment card, exit card, minute card, concept map, summary, KWL, and T-Card. Teacher education should be directed towards the creation of such tools using digital assessment tools (Google Forms, Socrative, Kahoot!).
3. In the following phase, pre-service teachers learn how to evaluate the data collected (including the data generated by digital tools), which reflect the performance/learning output and students’ progress to help them adapt their further learning procedures and strategies.

Pre-service teachers should develop this competence by learning to cooperate via the e-Twinning platform. This platform provides opportunities for creation, sharing, and presentation of teaching materials and projects, it promotes cooperation and involves AI-based technology and applications.

Keywords:

Digital Competence Framework for Educators, digital assessment, e-learning course, activating methods in chemistry teaching, students of teaching.