Formative assessment of school students’ performance during their foreign language project-based learning

Abstract

Introduction. The issue of monitoring and evaluating students’ performance during their foreign language project-based learning (PBL) is rather controversial. Different researchers consider PBL objects, forms, methods, and criteria of assessment from various points of view. The assessment in PBL is not the same as the official evaluative grading in Ukrainian schools and universities. Some teachers believe that it is impossible to assess students’ performancein PBL since it is an extremely creative process, and it is difficult to evaluate PBL results objectively. But on the other hand, students need to know where and why they succeed and fail, what kinds of mistakes they make and how to avoid them in the future project activities. Despite these contradictions, one cannot but agree with the belief that students’ performance during their foreign language PBL can and should be assessed both in terms of the acquired knowledge, skills, strategies, and in terms of the changes that take place in learners’ abilities. The assessment system of foreign language PBL has a complex and multidimensional framework, and covers both the process of PBL and its results. Purpose. The aim of this article is to provide a general description of the assessment system of school students’ performance during their foreign language PBL, namely, to identify functions, types, forms, subjects, objects, criteria, instruments, and tools of assessment, and to demonstrate several examples of formative assessment instruments. Methods. To achieve the purpose, there were used such theoretical research methods as scrutiny, analysis, selection, comparison of certain aspects, features, characteristics, and phenomena of the issue under consideration, induction and deduction, generalization, systematization, etc. Results. The functions, types, forms, subjects, objects, criteria, instruments, and tools of assessment of school students’ performance during their foreign language PBL were outlined. The particular attention was paid to the English language examples of formative assessment instruments evaluating certain objects. All aspects of the assessment system for evaluating school students’ performance during their foreign language PBL were presented in an integrated scheme. Conclusion. The prospects of further research studies are concerned with the use of digital educational technologies in for- and of-learning assessment of foreign language PBL. In addition, the question of methodological training of tertiary students majoring in foreign language teaching to plan, organize, implement PBL at Ukrainian schools, as well as to assess students’ performance during their PBL, is a mounting one.