“Formative assessment” is sometimes referred to as assessment for learning. Assessment is focused on uncovering learner progress and understanding, and then working with learners to help move them toward learning objectives.
One of the most frequently cited definitions describes formative assessment as:
Those activities undertaken by the teacher, and by their students in assessing themselves (that is, students’ assessment of their own work as well as their peers), which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. Such assessment becomes ‘formative assessment’ when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching work to meet the needs. Black and Wiliam, 2001
Others emphasise the importance of integrating formative assessment in each instructional activity, and of ensuring that learners are fully engaged in their learning process (Allal and Mottier-Lopez, 2005). Teachers/trainers are thus not only focused on covering specific content, but also on helping learners to become autonomous. Learners are supported to: think deeply about their work; to understand the relationship between previous and current performances using clearly defined success criteria; to develop effective learning strategies, and to be active in initiating and in improving their own learning (Clark, 2010).
These different definitions highlight formative assessment as a holistic and dynamic process. Formative assessment brings together a number of elements:
1. Learning environments and cultures that encourage interaction, reflection and the use of assessment tools. Learners need also to develop their capacity to receive, interpret and use feedback (see also Hattie and Clarke, 2019)
2. Active engagement of learners as agents of their own learning.
3. Establishment of learning/problem solving goals (as set out in curricula, lesson plans, or as agreed with the learner(s),)
4. Varied opportunities for learning and development of theoretical and practical competences to support and reinforce different learning needs
5. Varied approaches and tools to assess progress based on clearly defined criteria for success
6. Feedback and adaptation of teaching and learning to address gaps/learning needs (This framework has been adapted from OECD, 2005)
If you are a teacher, or trainer, you are invited to consider how you may integrate formative assessment in your regular teaching practice:
o How can you help learners to feel safe to reveal what they do and do not understand, and to fully engage with the learning process?
o What kinds of activities, questions and dialogues might help reveal what learners do and don’t understand?
o What kind of resources should you have on hand to help address different learner needs and help learning forward?
o How can you learn from the feedback you receive from learners?
If you are a policy maker, you are invited to consider how to support teachers/trainers and to bring good practices to scale:
o What kind of support might be provided for teacher/trainer professional development and peer learning?
o What kinds of tools and guidelines might be provided to support formative assessment practice?
o How might programme evaluations track the impact of formative assessment practices?
Please share your thoughts on these questions and other issues you consider as important for effective formative assessment policy and practice in the comment section below.
Would you like to learn more about formative assessment and the specific elements? Join our webinar on 29 September from 10.30 – 12.00 CET.
REFERENCES
Allal, L. and Mottier-Lopez, L (2005). “Formative Assessment of Learning: A Review of Publications in French.”, in OECD, Formative Assessment: Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms, OECD, Paris.
Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (2001). Inside the Black Box Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment, British Educational Research Association.
Clark, I. (2010). “Formative Assessment: There is nothing so practical as a good theory' Australian Journal of Education. Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 341-352.
Hattie, J. and Clarke, S. (2019). Visible learning: Feedback. London and New York: Routledge.
OECD (2005). Formative Assessment: Improving Learning in Lower Secondary Schools. Paris: OECD Publishing.
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