Observational and Diagnostic Tool for Determining the Level and Form of Formative Assessment in Czech Schools

Abstract

The current form of formative assessment in the educational practice of Czech primary and lower secondary schools faces criticism, especially because most teachers still prefer summative assessment. Formative assessment has not yet been systematically embraced within the national educational program. However, the general assumption is that teachers do work with formative assessment, but it has not yet been revealed how and how often.The present paper points out the existence of different forms and levels of formative assessment that allow categorizing the degree of formative assessment in teaching. The aim of the present paper is to summarize the already existing tools (which are based on D. Wiliam's concept of formative assessment) and to create a new, diagnostic and observational tool suitable for the educational reality of Czech primary and lower secondary schools (especially at the lower secondary schools and relevant years of multi-year general secondary schools) allowing to capture and analyze the form and level of formative assessment of teachers in teaching. The developed tool will be used to identify the level and form of formative assessment among teachers who seek to implement strategies of formative assessment in their practice.