Currently, formative assessment is one of the most popular types of assessment at all levels of education in many countries. An active work has been initiated in England, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, South Korea, Malaysia, and in other countries to develop formative assessment practices.
Formative assessment is a type of assessment that is carried out continuously, provides feedback between the teacher and the student and allows you to adjust the learning process in a timely manner.
Five key strategies defined by Black and William were adopted and used as following:
1. Clarification of the expected results and evaluation criteria;
2. Formation of effective interaction in the classroom;
3. Providing feedback to students;
4. Involvement of students in the process of mutual education;
5. The formation of the learner as the "creator" of his knowledge.
Implementing key strategies of formative assessment in the classroom allows students to achieve learning goals and improve their own results.
What will help the teacher to develop their own practice of formative assessment? There are a number of professional skills and competencies that are in demand today (goal setting, planning, organization, systematic thinking, creativity, reflection, etc.). At the same time, each of these skills plays a certain role in achieving effective practice of formative assessment; it is not possible and necessary to highlight the absolute priority of them. Therefore, this is one of the recent problems of determining and developing such a personality of a teacher, which will allow integrating his values and beliefs with actions and decisions made in practice. This quality is proactivity.
Proactivity is one of the most important characteristics of an activity aimed at a result, the basis of other skills that make a person effective. Proactivity consists of any set of actions that are defined by goals, planning, and the desire to influence.
The uniqueness and interactivity of the Guide is reflected through specific instructions for action (proactive cards) and the need to keep records of changes occurring in the practice of formative assessment.
The Guide will help each teacher to reflect on their experience, learn independently, improving pedagogical skills, effectively plan and apply formative assessment, expand and diversify teaching methods and provide feedback on the lessons.
This innovation can become a teacher’s handbook on formative assessment, the use of which will help to make positive changes in practice .