Over the last few years, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has been advocating the development of guroubaru-jinzai [global human resources]. These global human resources are to be top global performers who are intellectually savvy and internationally minded young men and women able to communicate across cultural divides and promote Japanese interests on the world stage. The success or failure of this policy will in no small part be determined by how well the various components of the educational system are aligned towards the goal. In particular, the ways in which assessment is conceptualized and practiced is vitally important. The continuation of a testing and examination system that consistently rewards memorization and repetition of learned facts will stifle the independence, creativity, and collaboration skills that MEXT hopes to develop. Rather, the development of these skills is best facilitated through formative assessment processes, which have until now been lacking within secondary and higher education in Japan. Instead there has been an inordinate focus on summative assessment and high stakes testing within the education system. In this paper I argue for the importance of formative assessment in shaping learners into the top global performers desired by MEXT and suggest some steps to be taken towards a contextually-based formative assessment practice.
ここ数年文部科学省はグローバル人材の育成を推奨している。グローバル人材とは異文化コミュニケーション能力と国際理解を備え、日本の国益を視野に世界で活躍できる知的エリートと言える。この政策が成功するには、教育制度を構成する様々な要素の良好な連携が不可欠である。中でも教育評価の適切な概念化と実行は特に重要である。丸暗記や機械的な学習を奨励する試験制度は、自立、創造力および協調力など文部科学省が人材に求める能力の育成を妨害していると思われる。学生がこの能力を習得するためには、形成的評価が有効であるが、従来日本の高校や大学ではあまり行われてこなかった。実際には、総括的評価と一発試験ばかりが重要視されてきたと言ってよいだろう。本稿では、グローバル人材育成における形成的評価の重要性を論じ、教育環境に合わせた実践方法を提案する。
