Student Assessment: Are We Ready to Shift from Assessment of Learning to Assessment for Learning?

Abstract

Assessment of students’ achievements can have two aims: to identify what students have or have not learnt or to provide them with information about how to improve their learning. What goals teachers formulate when choosing one or another form to assess students’ achievements depends on their competence and attitudes in relation to the teaching and learning process and the paradigms of teaching and learning. The article aims to answer the following questions: why is assessment for learning important for learning in the modern educational process and what are the attitudes of the teachers of Lithuanian comprehensive schools to apply assessment for learning in educational process? The problem is addressed in three parts of the article: the first part analyses the concepts of assessment of learning and assessment for learning and reveals the importance of assessment for learning; the second part presents the methodology of the research on teachers’ attitudes when assessing students’ achievement to apply assessment for learning; the third part presents the results of performed research, discussion and insights for further research.