Description

The Formative Assessment Benchmarking for Foreign Language Learning & Teaching in Higher Education (FAB) project was implemented as part of the Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnerships program. The project was coordinated by the Foreign Language Teaching Center at the University of Warsaw, and the consortium also included institutions from Finland, Hungary, and Lithuania. The project aimed to develop and test practical formative assessment tools that support teachers in collecting classroom data and using it to make teaching decisions and improve feedback.

Key Activities and Results:

• Tool Development: Student and teacher questionnaires, lesson observation forms, and peer observation templates focused on formative assessment processes were created. The tools were tested in teaching practice with hundreds of students and dozens of teachers.
• Peer Observation and Reflection Cycles: Teachers conducted lesson observations according to uniform protocols and then discussed the results during local and international workshops. Based on the data, decisions were made to change practices—for example, the way feedback was formulated, the selection of formative tasks, and the organization of classroom activities.
• Competency building and dissemination: The project included training sessions, study visits, and conferences (including one in Warsaw in 2017). Guides and manuals were also prepared, containing ready-to-use tool templates.

Why is it a good practice?

FAB demonstrates how to easily transform classroom data (short test results, questionnaire responses, lesson observations) into a tool for teaching development. A data loop model was developed: information collection → analysis of simple indicators → teaching adjustments → re-evaluation of results. This allowed teachers to continuously adjust their methods, and students received better, more relevant feedback.

Practical tips for other schools and institutions:

• FAB questionnaires and forms can be easily adapted to any school subject, replacing language tasks with tasks from mathematics, history, or biology.
• The peer observation form can be used during weekly teacher meetings to analyze student performance.
• Simple student surveys and exit ticket tasks provide a quick and inexpensive source of data that helps plan future teaching steps.

The project demonstrated that formative assessment, even with simple tools, can effectively support improved teaching quality and strengthen a culture of teacher collaboration. The developed materials and textbooks are still available online, and the FAB model can be easily adapted in both higher education and general education settings.

Reference Link

https://faberasmusdotorg.wordpress.com/formative-assessment-theory/