The study presents a secondary analysis of the “Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes, Generic Skills Strand”, the international study of critical thinking skills (OECD, 2012). National secondary analyses include a comparison of student teachers (n = 110) and students of other study programmes (n = 413) in critical thinking and investigates a potential relation of contextual characteristics with their critical thinking performance. Performance Task and Multiple Choice Questions were used to measure critical thinking skills and a Contextual Questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic data, and subjectively evaluated characteristics related to test-taking motivation and coursework. The main results showed that student teachers scored lower in critical thinking performance than students of other study programmes.

The purpose of this study is to describe the current foreign language (FL) assessment and feedback practices as reported by 213 experienced primary teachers in Slovenia and Spain. An ad hoc questionnaire was designed, validated and administered to 113 Slovenian and 100 Spanish teachers. The data were collected and analysed with the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Among the most relevant findings, it is noteworthy that Spanish teachers focus on providing feedback on receptive skills while their Slovenian colleagues pay more attention to productive skills. Also, results from both groups reveal a lack of FL pronunciation feedback and scarce attention to interactive aspects of communication.

The article is devoted to the study of the regulatory framework for evaluating the activities of civil servants in Ukraine. In particular, the Law of Ukraine «On Civil Service» is analyzed, as well as the «Procedure for evaluation of civil servants performance results». The purpose of the article is to systematize the principles, procedures and features of evaluating the activities of civil servants, which should help increase the effectiveness of their professional competencies, as well as the functioning of personnel management services in public institutions. The research methodology is based on systemic and structuralfunctional approaches. One of the tasks of the study is to identify the negative aspects of current legislation. It is proved that the procedure of appealing the negative conclusion of the evaluation of the performance of a civil servant needs to be clarified, as well as the algorithm of his/her dismissal in case of receiving a negative evaluation. The peculiarities of evaluating the performance of civil servants who hold public office positions of category «A», «B» and «С» are analyzed.

The study assessed children’s ability to develop narratives and express ideas. It comprised 120 children (5-10 years), and differences in relation to age, sex, and economic area were measured. To this end, we compared four schools in 2 economic areas (poor and average). We used 2 picture and 2 story re-telling tasks designed to elicit narrations reflecting the generation of ideas in response to visual and auditory stimuli. Significant differences for age and sex but not economic areas were found. Suggestions are made for balancing brain activity and developing more creative approaches in teaching and assessment.

A shift from traditional methods of teaching science to modern and better suited to pupils can be noticed in Slovenian primary schools. They should also be followed by assessment both in regular primary schools and special education schools. The purpose of this study was to find out the perceptions of special education teachers about their own practice of science assessments and their actual practices. A questionnaire and authentic written tests were used for the research. Comparative analysis revealed considerable inconsistency between perceptions and practices. The greatest differences were found in the cognitive levels of knowledge and process skills. The research results raise teachers’ awareness and thus enable changing of their practices.

This validation study deals with verification of the Czech version of CASSS. The questionnaire comprises 60 items. Students assess the frequency of each event described by an item and its importance. The research was realized on a sample of 274 grade 6 to 9 students and yielded similar psychometric properties as the original American version of CASSS (2000). The factor analysis identified five-factor structure corresponding to the variables of parents, teacher, classmates, best friend, and people in school. Factor loadings ranged from 0.31 to 0.87 (compared with 0.52 to 0.81 in the original version) within each of the five components. The identified structure explains approximately 48 % of variance. Reliability estimated using Cronbach alpha was computed for each subscale (parents, teacher, classmates, best friend, and people in school). The coefficients ranged from 0.84 to 0.93 (compared with 0.92 to 0.95 in the original version). Cronbach alpha for the whole questionnaire is 0.95 (compared with 0.96 in the original version). The method can be used within the conditions of Czech schools to determine the actual state of individuals and groups, individual counselling and evaluation of intervention effects.