This study examines the effectiveness of proactive cards for formative assessment (FA) and feedback in daily lessons. Lesson observations revealed that developing self-regulation skills is crucial in modern education, particularly for 10th-grade students preparing for external examinations. Strengthening self-regulation enhances higher-order and critical thinking skills. The study aims to integrate FA cards effectively into teaching to help students regulate their actions through structured feedback. The research question investigates whether feedback methods using proactive FA cards contribute to the development of self-regulation skills in 10th-grade students.

Two hypotheses were proposed: (1) The methodological manual Being Proactive in FA, developed under the 100 Ideas for Developing a Culture of FA project, addresses challenges in student assessment; (2) Proactive FA card assessment methods positively impact the self-regulation skills of 10th-grade students.

This study was conducted between September and December 2023 among 10th-grade students at Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools in Taraz and Almaty. A total of 93 students participated—48 from Taraz and 45 from Almaty. To evaluate effectiveness, we used entry and exit questionnaires, peer observation, and comparative analysis. Students’ metacognitive skills—self-regulation, evaluation of actions, intrinsic motivation, reasoning, and interpretation—were assessed.

The study followed three phases: (1) Pre-test – A 15-question survey assessed students' initial self-regulation and motivation levels based on T.D. Dubovitskaya’s methodology. Results showed that 47% struggled with independent work, and 28% required constant monitoring and correction. (2) Implementation – Students used proactive FA cards incorporating five strategies from Being Proactive in FA. They progressed through five evaluation levels, transitioning from teacher-student feedback to student-student and finally to student-teacher feedback, fostering self-learning. (3) Post-test and Analysis – The final questionnaire revealed an improvement in students’ self-regulation and motivation.

The results demonstrated a positive impact of proactive FA cards on self-regulation, motivation, and reasoning. Surveys, test scores, and peer observations indicated that students became more engaged in evaluating their work and learning independently. For instance, in Almaty, the average score for a reading literacy task increased from 7/15 in the pre-test to 12/15 in the final test, reflecting improved analytical and theoretical skills. Additionally, creative writing task performance improved by 29%.

Overall, the study confirmed that proactive FA cards enhance students’ self-regulation, responsibility, and academic performance. Timely, clear, and actionable feedback—allowing students to correct mistakes independently—was essential. Since 28% of students indicated they could revise their work independently, future teaching should emphasize self-correction further. Identifying and addressing knowledge gaps through FA significantly contributes to skill development, even if it does not directly guarantee high scores.

Thus, structured formative feedback plays a key role in fostering self-regulation, independent learning, and deeper engagement in the educational process.

Effective feedback through FA is a purposeful continuous process that is carried out in daily lessons. It determines the level of training of knowledge and skills and constantly monitors the student's learning [7]. It forms a close relationship between the student and the teacher in the educational process. This process provides an opportunity to determine how correctly students perform tasks in learning new material in order to achieve the objectives of the lesson and develop skills [8]. We have identified methods to determine how FA and feedback methods contribute to the development of students’ self-regulation skills. The first is the transformative use of proactive cards of formative assessment, and the second is the cumulative analysis method. Our study consists of 3 phases: 1) identification of needs by conducting a pre-test; 2) conversion of proactive cards of FA; 3) post-test, analysis. Students were first asked to answer questions that determine the degree of self-regulation, intrinsic motivation, reasoning and interpretation. When compiling the questionnaire, the number of questions was evenly distributed – 15 questions in total. When compiling the questionnaire, the methodology of T.D. Dubovitskaya “Determining the direction and level of intrinsic motivation of students’ educational activities” was taken as a basis. As a result of the survey, 47% of students stated that they have difficulty working on themselves, and 28% of students need timely monitoring and correction of their knowledge and skills. While solving the problem, together with colleagues, proactive cards on 5 strategies from the methodological manual “Being Proactive in FA” were used. Students had to go through 5 levels of evaluation until they were able to evaluate their actions and formulate their knowledge. Initially, students received constructive feedback from the teacher in the “teacher-student” model when assessing tasks on comparative analysis of texts, creative writing and a subscription for a specific audience, then this assessment switched to the “student-student” model. Now, students can submit their assessment using the “student-teacher” model to receive feedback from the teacher. Student involvement in the process of self-learning has been facilitated. Conditions have been created to mould the student into a person capable of building their knowledge. After the study sessions, students were again presented with a previous questionnaire. According to the results of the survey, we noticed an increase in the students’ self-regulation and intrinsic motivation.

At the end of the study, we found that after using proactive cards for formative assessment with Grade 10 students, students’ abilities to self-regulate, evaluate their actions and analyse improved. Students were found to take more responsibility for their studies and actions, and students’ scores on literacy tasks set in class improved. This is evidenced by the results of the study of the first, second and third samples, as well as the results of the summative work. For example, according to the results of the entry test examination in November, the average score for the 1A reading literacy task of the 10th grade students of Almaty NIS was only 7 out of 15 possible points, and according to the results of the last No. 3 test examination, it increased to 12 points. The result of the creative subscription task on students’ subscription skills increased to 29%. As a result of the study, the previous assumptions were confirmed. In this context, we believe that it is very important that the feedback is timely, accurate, understandable and effective: i.e. provides the opportunity to act on the information received (G. Wiggins, 1998). With the help of this feedback, students should be able to improve and correct their work independently and eliminate deficits in knowledge and skills. In view of the results obtained in this study, teaching needs to be further improved. We must therefore also be able to give students the opportunity to correct their mistakes themselves so that they do not repeat them. In the course of the study, 28% of the students surveyed stated that mistakes and gaps in homework could be corrected by themselves. The knowledge identified in the formative assessment does not lead to a high score.

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