The Impact of Formative Assessment on Results of Secondary School Pupils in Mathematics: One Case of Schools in Slovakia

Teaching of mathematics at Slovak primary schools used to be based on the trans missive transfer of knowledge and skills from teachers to pupils. The currently used constructive and investigative approach in teaching mathematics in Slovakia requires a change in the formative assessment in mathematics based on the pedagogic experiment, which is carried out on a target group of respondents. The issue of measuring and evaluating pupils' performance is still topical for several reasons. Pupils' results in mathematics often do not meet the expectations among pupils themselves and their parents. Measuring pupil's level of knowledge and quality of education is also one of the topics that are very often discussed by the general public. We consider the use of formative assessment to correct teachers' teaching practices and pupils' learning practices as a suitable tool for the teaching process. This fact can be applied also in teaching mathematics. It helps to identify misconceptions in pupils' knowledge, to diagnose various problems and their causes in the learning process of pupils.