In today’s rapidly changing world, there is an increasing emphasis on transversal competencies—skills that prove invaluable to students regardless of the specific context. A fundamental component of these key competencies is the competence to learn, which fosters the essential skills required for lifelong learning (EU, 2019). Within this framework, student self-assessment plays a pivotal role (Earl, 2012). It serves as a primary driver, encouraging students to gradually assume responsibility for their own educational progress and master the ability to learn throughout their lives. Furthermore, this approach is intrinsically linked to learner-centered education.

This paper addresses the level of student self-assessment and the methodologies for its measurement. The instrument selected for this purpose, the SaPS questionnaire (Yan, 2018), was originally developed in an Asian context. This study discusses the process of adapting this tool for the European environment, specifically within the Czech Republic. This adaptation is timely, as the Czech education system is currently undergoing a curricular reform in line with the 2030+ Strategy (Fryč et al., 2020), which shifts the focus toward assessment; notably, formative assessment is being strongly promoted, and traditional grading in the first and second grades of primary school has been abolished.
The paper outlines the adaptation stages, including translation, cross-cultural adjustment, and consultations with both experts and students. Finally, it details the pilot data collection and the subsequent evaluation using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.
This study is part of a more extensive research project investigating the relationship between the level of students' self-assessment skills and their self-regulated learning. The objective is to highlight the significance of these two components in education and to explore the correlation between them.

Following Phase 1: Linguistic and Cultural Adaptation The initial stage involved a double-blind forward translation of the original SaPS instrument from its source language into Czech, followed by a back-translation conducted by an independent expert to ensure conceptual equivalence. Beyond literal translation, cultural adaptation was performed to align the items with the specific terminology of the Czech education context. Phase 2: Content Validity and Pre-testing To ensure content validity, the draft version was subjected to a cognitive debriefing process. This involved consultations with a panel of experts in teaching and assessment to assess the context relevance of the items. Simultaneously, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a small sample of pupils (the target population) to evaluate the clarity and comprehensibility of the phrasing, ensuring that the self-assessment items were developmentally appropriate. Phase 3: Pilot Data Collection The adapted instrument was administered to a pilot sample of primary school students. This stage aimed to test the feasibility of the paper-based administration and to gather sufficient data for initial psychometric screening. The sampling focused on wide range of schools. Phase 4: Psychometric Analysis The final stage involves a rigorous statistical evaluation of the tool's internal structure. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) is employed to identify the underlying factor structure within the European context, followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to test the goodness-of-fit of the model. Furthermore, internal consistency is measured using Cronbach’s alpha to ensure the reliability of the scales. This analysis will determine whether the SaPS instrument remains a valid measure of self-assessment skills and their relation to self-regulated learning when transferred across different cultural and educational frameworks.

This paper presents the ongoing process of adapting the SaPS questionnaire for the European educational context, specifically within the Czech Republic. As the research is currently in its developmental and pilot stages, the findings presented here are preliminary. However, the expected findings suggest that the instrument will demonstrate sufficient psychometric characteristics to be utilized within the Czech context. We anticipate that the results from the confirmatory factor analysis will validate the structural integrity of the tool, confirming its effectiveness in measuring students' self-assessment skills.

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