Formative Assessment and Evaluation

Mojca Mihelič and Eva Zore

Summary:  Formative assessment of students‘ knowledge is seen as establishing a bridge between the learning and teaching process. Central use involves giving feedback and developing the student‘s ability to self-evaluate. The central teacher’s part is to shift from the role of knowledge provider to the teacher-guide through the learning process. Formative assessment increases the quality of knowledge, impacts the level of learning and encourages students’ responsibility for their own knowledge. This is superficially already included in the teaching process in many primary schools in Slovenian national departments, whereas at the international program The International Baccalaureate students can be formally only assessed after prior formative assessment. The article thus discusses about the discrepancy between the formative assessment in the international program, which is valid as a basis for assessment, and formative assessment in national programs, which according to the rules should not be taken into account in assessments. The final assessment in the national program is only a view of momentary state of students’ knowledge. It does not allow to abide by the success of partial checks, which deprives children and parents of applied and useful information, such as the child‘s knowledge or his progress in knowledge. Sophisticated teaching methods, such as individualization, differentiation in personalization motivate curiosity and imagination and encourage the merging of knowledge in different fields.