The main aim of this study was to analyse pupils’ views of assessment’s role and meaning in their schoolwork. Theoretical background was designed by means of concepts as formative (assessment for learning) and summative (assessment of learning) assessment and several views of alternative assessment methods were explained. Notions of feedback and feedforward were presented in shedding light on the successful mechanisms to promote learning processes.

The key research questions were:

1. How is the role of summative and formative assessment perceived by pupils?
2. How satisfied pupils are with the feedback and feedforward activities during learning processes?
3. How pupils see various functions of assessment?
4. How pupils describe and define the concept of “good assessment”?

A survey was conducted among 6th and 9th graders of Finnish comprehensive school and 2nd graders of general upper secondary schools. First, statistical sample of 290 schools were selected. Secondly, certain number of teachers (representing various groups of school subjects) of these schools were asked to participate. 5001 pupils of these teachers filled in the electronic questionnaire. Various background variables (gender, year of school, school subject, school motivation and success) were asked. Structured items (Likert scale 1-5) were designed to capture pupils’ views of formative and summative assessment and their teachers’ ability to promote learning by assessment. Pupils were also asked to report on assessment anxiety. Pupils wrote their own descriptions of functions of assessment and definitions of ”good assessment”. Data of the quantitative items of the survey were analysed by ordinary statistical methods (percentages, means, standard deviations, correlations, t-tests, one-way Anova). Open-ended questions were analysed by close reading and data-driven thematisation.

According to the preliminary results, pupils were quite satisfied with the feedback and their teachers’ attention to their learning. They complained about too frequent use of exams but were of the opinion that teachers helped them in focusing on objectives and their assessment. Many of them saw numerical assessment as more useful for learning than verbal assessments. Finnish pupils did not suffer from hard anxiety regarding assessment. Half of pupils were able to discuss with teachers when they were not satisfied with their grades. They listed several reasons why assessment and grades were used at school (state of learning, development and future, weaknesses and strengths) and defined “good assessment” as being fair, honest, well-grounded, many-sided and encouraging. Relationships between background variables and assessment views will be discussed in detail in the presentation.

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