Formativno procjenjivanje pisanja na engleskom kao stranom jeziku u školama u Hrvatskoj

Even though summative assessment is still relatively widespread in the Croatian education system, formative assessment has gained popularity in recent years. In formative assessment, the teacher’s task is to provide students with information that will enable them to answer the three key questions crucial for optimal learning – Where am I going? Where am I now? How do I get there? The most important thing is that students are active participants in all aspects of the instruction process and that they are able to think about their own learning and make judgments about their own work and the work of others. As such, formative assessment is an important part of the EFL curriculum in Croatia as the main goal of EFL in schools is to enable students to communicate independently in the target language. Learning how to express yourself in writing is a vital part of this goal. Therefore, this study investigated how both teachers and students in schools in Croatia view and use formative assessment for developing EFL writing skills. The results of the qualitative and quantitative research showed that both teachers and students see value in formative assessment of EFL writing and appreciate formative assessment strategies that are more consistent with assessment for learning rather than assessment as learning. However, there is still some work to do in terms of including students in the process of assessment of written work and transforming them from passive to active participants. According to the participating teachers, the biggest challenges in doing so are an overly extensive syllabus, lack of time, and a supposed lack of students’ motivation and interest.