INTEGRATED SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCING CRITICAL THINKING COMPETENCE IN SCHOOL EDUCATION
Keywords:
summative assessment, integrated assessment, critical thinking competence, school education, higher-order thinking, performance task, rubric, educational outcomesAbstract
The article examines integrated summative assessment as a pedagogical mechanism for developing students’ critical thinking competence in school education. The study argues that critical thinking cannot be strengthened by end-of-term testing built only on reproduction of facts, closed questions, and isolated subject content. A more productive model is an integrated summative assessment that combines selected-response items with analytical writing, evidence-based explanation, problem solving, source comparison, oral defence, and reflective judgement within a shared rubric. On that basis, the paper clarifies the structure of critical thinking competence, identifies assessment principles that make higher-order reasoning visible, and describes the didactic conditions required for reliable use in school practice. Particular attention is given to the alignment of learning outcomes, task design, scoring criteria, and feedback procedures. The article concludes that integrated summative assessment becomes effective when it measures not only the final answer, but also the quality of argument, interpretation, transfer, justification, and self-correction demonstrated by the learner.
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