Abstract:

This paper aims to inform about the results of a research focused on the opinions and attitudes of lower secondary school teachers regarding formative assessment (FA) and its use in the teaching process. For this purpose, an electronic questionnaire was distributed during the 2022/2023 school year. The research sample consisted of 16 lower secondary schools teachers of science, mathematics, and informatics. A scale questionnaire designed by the authors was used as the research instrument. Teachers provided their answers using a Likert scale (0 – never; 1 – once half a year; 2 – monthly; 3 – weekly; 4 – daily). The evaluation of the questionnaire results showed that these teachers’ attitude to formative assessment was positive in general. The three FA tools used most frequently in teaching are self-assessment card, prediction card, and exit card. Teachers consider the following aspects important for using FA in teaching: planning coherent sequences in line with the educational goals rather than whole lessons; asking students questions during the lesson; leading effective classroom discussion; activities that support cooperation among students. The key aspect of FA is to provide students with personalised feedback analysing the potential causes of their errors as well as advice on how to identify and remove shortcomings and gaps in their learning. Teachers emphasize the need to adapt teaching based on students’ feedback and provide them with tasks and activities that are directly related to the educational goals and clearly show students’ progress. Moreover, teachers realize that digital technology can potentially support the implementation and improvement of formative assessment procedures. The efficiency of the implementation of formative assessment into teaching may be influenced by several factors such as the teacher’s approach, their professional training, students’ approach, time requirements, and the internal system in place at the given school.

Keywords:

Formative assessment, implementation, teachers’ opinions and attitudes, lower secondary school.