LAUSR

Assessment is an inseparable and central element of educational process (Black, 1993). According to the Cambridge Dictionary, assessment is “the act of judging or deciding the amount, value, quality, or importance of something, or the judgment or decision that is made” (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Historically, the main role of assessment has been to determine and provide grades for promoting students to the next level (Moon, 2005). Scriven noticed that “evaluation is itself a methodological activity which is essentially similar whether we are trying to evaluate coffee machines or teaching machines, plans for a house or plans for a curriculum” (Scriven, 1967). Thus, assessment has the same conditions, no matter the area of assessment. Assessment is used to discover what students (people) know and what they can do (Baird, Andrich, Hopfenbeck, & Stobart, 2017). Two fundamental types of assessment can be distinguished: summative assessment and formative assessment. Summative assessment (SA) sums up evidence, therefore is applied usually at the end of a certain part of the educational process. It provides information about students’ progress in relation to the selected population (Harlen, 2000; Olson & Loucks-Horsley, 2000; Taras, 2005) and is mostly based on tests (Baird et al., 2017). The highest increase in the summative assessment importance was observed at the beginning of the 21st century when educational institutions (schools and universities) emphasized standardization of assessment (Lau, 2016). Formative assessment (FA), on the other hand, means ongoing evaluation during an educational process that provides extended feedback (Scriven, 1967). Many researchers emphasized fitting together summative and formative assessments (Barnett, 2007; Sambell, McDowell, & Montgomery, 2012; Taras, 2005). Sambell et al. (2012) highlighted the importance of balancing summative and formative assessments and point out that both should be a source of learning. Taras (2005) also proffered the vision of learning process based on both summative and formative assessments but sees SA as a judgment which is followed by feedback, thus, formative assessment follows summative one. On the other hand, Siweya and Letsoalo (2014) suggested that formative assessment can Abstract. Assessment in many Centraland Eastern-European countries is dominated by summative assessment (SA). Simultaneously, researchers and educators from western Europe and the US proclaim the formative assessment (FA) as an important element of the educational process and advise including it into curricula and everyday teachers’ practice. The research presented herein reports an introduction of formative assessment classroom techniques (FACTs) during chemistry lessons at K7 level in Slovakia. In total 202 students participated in the research. They were divided randomly into a control (n=97) and an experimental (n=105) group, and the intervention covered 10 successive lessons. After the intervention, the student’s outcomes were compared using the test checking student’s knowledge and skills according to various domains of Bloom’s revised taxonomy. The results suggested a statistically significant increase in the score of the experimental group, and a detailed analysis revealed that the increase was significant in both lowerand higher-order cognitive skills area. Finally, the students’ reaction on the introduction of formative assessment was studied and showed their positive attitude towards the introduced method.