Evaluation and Assessment in Early Social Science

Abstract

Authenticity is an important element in the newer models of teaching, evaluation and assessment. Due to the fact that it is quite unclear how authentic evaluation and assessment should be implemented into practice, teachers still cling too much to traditional forms of knowledge evaluation and assessment. First, some basic theoretical facts on evaluation and assessment with an emphasis on authentic evaluation and assessment are listed. Next, an outline of empirical research findings on the characteristics of evaluation and assessment in the subject Social Science in Year 4 is presented. Data were obtained by a web questionnaire on a representative sample of teachers who were teaching the subject Social Science in Year 4 at various primary schools in Slovenia. We discovered that teachers very commonly use summative knowledge evaluation and assessment form. Among the authentic and alternative forms research and simulation are predominant.