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Formative assessment, including diagnostic testing, is a range of formal and informal

assessment procedures conducted by teachers during the learning process in order to modify
teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment. It typically involves
[1]

qualitative feedback (rather than scores) for both student and teacher that focuses on the
details of content and performance. It is commonly contrasted with summative assessment,
[2]

which seeks to monitor educational outcomes, often for purposes of external accountability. [3]

Contents
 1 Definition
 2 Origin of the term
 3 Formative assessment vs. summative assessment
 4 Rationale and practice
 5 Examples of formative assessment
 6 Evidence
 7 Strategies
o 7.1 Understanding goals for learning
o 7.2 Feedback
o 7.3 Questioning
 7.3.1 Wait time
 8 Peer-assessment
 9 In K–12
o 9.1 Methods
o 9.2 Purpose
 10 Specific applications
o 10.1 In math education
 10.1.1 Feedback examples
o 10.2 Formative assessment in second/foreign language education
o 10.3 Formative assessment in elementary education
o 10.4 Activities that can be used as formative assessment tools in mathematics
and science classrooms
 10.4.1 Model-eliciting activities (MEAs)
 10.4.2 Generative activities
o 10.5 Formative assessment in computer-supported learning
 11 Formative assessment in UK education
 12 Benefits of formative assessments for teachers (Boston, 2002)
 13 Benefits for students
 14 See also
 15 References
 16 External links
Definition
Practice in a classroom is formative to the extent that evidence about student achievement is
elicited, interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or their peers, to make decisions about the
next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions they
would have taken in the absence of the evidence that was elicited. [4]

Origin of the term

Michael Scriven coined the terms formative and summative evaluation in 1967, and
emphasized their differences both in terms of the goals of the information they seek and how
the information is used. For Scriven, formative evaluation gathered information to assess the
[5]

effectiveness of a curriculum and guide school system choices as to which curriculum to

adopt and how to improve it. Benjamin Bloom took up the term in 1968 in the
[6]

book Learning for Mastery to consider formative assessment as a tool for improving the
teaching-learning process for students. His subsequent 1971 book Handbook of Formative
[7]

and Summative Evaluation, written with Thomas Hasting and George Madaus, showed how
formative assessments could be linked to instructional units in a variety of content areas. It is
[8]

this approach that reflects the generally accepted meaning of the term today. For both
[9]

Scriven and Bloom, an assessment, whatever its other uses, is only formative if it is used to
alter subsequent educational decisions. Subsequently, however, Black and Wiliam have
[6]

suggested this definition is too restrictive, since formative assessments may be used to
provide evidence that the intended course of action was indeed appropriate. They propose
that:

Practice in a classroom is formative to the extent that evidence about student achievement is
elicited, interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or their peers, to make decisions about the
next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions they
would have taken in the absence of the evidence that was elicited. [10]

Formative assessment vs. summative assessment

The type of assessment that people may be more familiar with is Summative assessment. The
table below shows some basic differences between the two types of assessment.
[11]

Summative Assessment Formative Assessment

At the end of a learning

Time During a learning activity
activity

Goal To make a decision To improve learning

Feedback Final judgement Return to material

 Sometimes normative
Frame of (comparing each student Always criterion (evaluating students
Reference according to the same criteria)
against all others); sometimes
criterion
Rationale and practice
Formative assessment serves several purposes:

 to provide feedback for teachers to modify subsequent learning activities and

experiences; [2]

 to identify and remediate group or individual deficiencies; [2]

 to move focus away from achieving grades and onto learning processes, in order
to increase self efficacy and reduce the negative impact of extrinsic motivation; [3]

 to improve students' metacognitive awareness of how they learn. [3]

 "frequent, ongoing assessment allows both for fine-tuning of instruction and

student focus on progress." [12]

Characteristics of Formative Assessment:

According to Harlen and James (1997) formative assessment: - is essentially positive in

intent, in that it is directed towards promoting learning; it is therefore part of teaching;

- it takes into account the progress of each individual, the effort put in and other aspects of
learning which may be unspecified in the curriculum; in other words, it is not purely criterion-
referenced;

-it has to take into account several instances in which certain skills and ideas are used and
there will be inconsistencies as well as patterns in behaviour; such inconsistencies would be
'error' in summative evaluation, but in formative evaluation they provide diagnostic
information;

- validity and usefulness are paramount in formative assessment and should take precedence
over concerns for reliability;

- even more than assessment for other purposes, formative assessment requires that pupils
have a central part in it; pupils have to be active in their own learning (teachers cannot learn
for them) and unless they come to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and how they
might deal with them, they will not make progress. [13]

Feedback is the central function of formative assessment. It typically involves a focus on the
detailed content of what is being learnt, rather than simply a test score or other measurement
[2]

of how far a student is falling short of the expected standard. Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick,
[14]

synthesising from the literature, list seven principles of good feedback practice:

1. It clarifies what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards);

2. It facilitates the development of self-assessment in learning;
3. It provides high quality information to students about their learning;
 4. It encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning;
5. It encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem;
6. It provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired
performance;
7. It provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape
teaching. [14][15]

Examples of formative assessment

The time between formative assessment and adjustments to learning can be a matter of
seconds or a matter of months. Some examples of formative assessment are:
[6]

 A language teacher asks students to choose the best thesis statement from a
selection; if all choose correctly she moves on; if only some do she may initiate a
class discussion; if most answer incorrectly then she may review the work on
thesis statements. [6]

 A teacher asks her students to write down, in a brainstorm activity, all they know
about how hot-air balloons work so that she can discover what students already
know about the area of science she is intending to teach. [16]

 A science supervisor looks at the previous year's student test results to help plan
teacher workshops during the summer vacation, to address areas of weakness in
student performance. [6]

 A teacher documents student work and student conferences to help plan authentic
activities to meet student needs [17]

 Students could be given each one of three "traffic cards" to indicate the level at
which they are understanding a concept during a lesson. Green means that the
student is understanding the concept and the teacher can move on, yellow
indicates that the instructor should slow down because the student is only
somewhat understanding the concept, and red indicates that the student wishes
that the teacher stops and explains a specific concept more clearly because they
are not understanding it. [18]

Evidence
Meta-analysis of studies into formative assessment have indicated significant learning gains
where formative assessment is used, across all content areas, knowledge and skill types, and
levels of education. Educational researcher Robert J. Marzano states:
[19]

Recall the finding from Black and Wiliam’s (1998) synthesis of more than 250 studies that
formative assessments, as opposed to summative ones, produce the more powerful effect on
student learning. In his review of the research, Terrance Crooks (1988) reports that effects
sizes for summative assessments are consistently lower than effect sizes for formative
assessments. In short, it is formative assessment that has a strong research base supporting its
impact on learning.[20]:9

While empirical evidence has shown the substantial impact formative assessment has in
raising student achievement, it is also “recognized as one of the most powerful ways to
[19]

enhance student motivation.” Believing in their ability to learn, contributing learning

[21]

successes to individual efforts and abilities, emphasizing progress toward learning goals
rather than letter grades, and evaluating “the nature of their thinking to identify strategies that
improve understanding” are all manners in which motivation is enhanced through an
[22]

effective use of formative assessment. However, for these gains to become evident
[21]

formative assessment must (1) Clarify and share learning goals and success criteria; (2) Create
effective classroom discussions and other tasks which demonstrate evidence of student
understanding; (3) provide feedback which can and will be acted upon; (4) allow students to
become instructional resources for one another; and (5) stimulate students to become owners
of their own learning. [23]

Some researchers have concluded that standards-based assessments may be an effective way
to “prescribe instruction and to ensure that no child is left behind”. [20]:13

The strongest evidence of improved learning gains comes from short-cycle (over seconds or
minutes within a single lesson) formative assessment, and medium to long-term assessment
where assessment is used to change the teacher's regular classroom practice. [6]

Strategies
Understanding goals for learning
It is important for students to understand the goals and the criteria for success when learning
in the classroom. Often teachers will introduce learning goals to their students before a lesson,
but will not do an effective job in distinguishing between the end goals and what the students
will be doing to achieve those goals. "When teachers start from what it is they want students
[18]

to know and design their instruction backward from that goal, then instruction is far more
likely to be effective". In a study done by Gray and Tall, they found that 72 students
[24] [25]

between the ages of 7 and 13 had different experiences when learning in mathematics. The
study showed that higher achieving students looked over mathematical ambiguities, while the
lower achieving students tended to get stuck on these misunderstandings. An example of

this [18]
can be seen in the number . Although it is not explicitly stated, the operation

between these two numbers is addition. If we look at the number , here the implied

operation between and is multiplication. Finally if we take a look at the

number , there is a completely different operation between the 6 and 1. The study
showed that higher achieving students were able to look past this while other students were
not.

Another study done by White and Frederiksen showed that when twelve 7th grade science
[26]

classrooms were given time to reflect on what they deemed to be quality work, and how they
thought they would be evaluated on their work, the gap between the high achieving students
and the low achieving students was decreased.
One way to help with this is to offer students different examples of other students' work so
they can evaluate the different pieces. By examining the different levels of work, students can
start to differentiate between superior and inferior work.

Feedback

There has been extensive research done on studying how students are affected by feedback.
Kluger and DeNisi (1996) reviewed over three thousand reports on feedback in schools,
[27]

universities, and the workplace. Of these, only 131 of them were found to be scientifically
rigorous and of those, 50 of the studies shows that feedback actually has negative effects on
its recipients. This is due to the fact that feedback is often "ego-involving", that is the
[18]

feedback focuses on the individual student rather than the quality of the student's work.
Feedback is often given in the form of some numerical or letter grade and that perpetuates
students being compared to their peers. The studies previously mentioned showed that the
most effective feedback for students is when they are not only told in which areas they need to
improve, but also how to go about improving it.

It has been shown that leaving comments alongside grades is just as ineffective as giving
solely a numerical/letter grade (Butler 1987, 1989). This is due to the fact that students tend
[28]

to look at their grade and disregard any comments that are given to them. The next thing
students tend to do is to ask other students in the class for their grade, and they compare the
grade to their own grade.

Questioning

Questioning is an important part of the learning process and an even more important part is
asking the right types of questions. Questions that promote discussion and student reflection
make it easier for students to go on the right path to end up completing their learning goals.
Here are some types of questions that are good to ask students:

 What do you think of [student]'s answer?

 What can we add to [student]'s explanation?
 [Student] said this and [student] said that, but how can we combine these
explanations into a complete answer?

Wait time

Wait time is the amount of time that is given to someone to answer a question that was posed.
Rowe went on to look at the outcomes of having longer wait times for students. These
[29]

included:

 answers were longer;

 failure to respond decreased;
 responses from students were more confident;
 students challenged and/or improved the answers of other students;
 more alternative explanations were offered.

Peer-assessment
Having students assess each other's work has been studied to have numerous benefits: [30]
  When students know that they are going to be assessed by their peers, they tend
to put more attention to detail in their work.
 Students are able to speak to one another in a language that they are more
comfortable with than they would be with an instructor. The insight of a fellow
student might be more relatable than that of a teacher.
 Students tend to accept constructive criticism more from a fellow student than
from an instructor.
 While students are in the process of peer-assessment, a teacher can more easily
take command of the learning going on. The teacher can also stand on the
sidelines and watch as the students continue to assess each other's work and may
intervene at any time if need be.

In K–12
Formative assessment is valuable for day-to-day teaching when used to adapt instructional
methods to meet students’ needs and for monitoring student progress toward learning goals.
Further, it helps students monitor their own progress as they get feedback from the teacher
and/or peers, allowing the opportunity to revise and refine their thinking. Formative
assessment is also known as educative assessment, classroom assessment, or assessment for
learning.

Methods

There are many ways to integrate formative assessment into K–12 classrooms. Although the
key concepts of formative assessment such as constant feedback, modifying the instruction,
and information about students' progress do not vary among different disciplines or levels, the
methods or strategies may differ. For example, researchers developed generative activities
(Stroup et al., 2004) and model-eliciting activities (Lesh et al., 2000) that can be used as
[31] [32]

formative assessment tools in mathematics and science classrooms. Others developed

strategies computer-supported collaborative learning environments (Wang et al., 2004b).
More information about implication of formative assessment in specific areas is given
[33]

below.

Purpose

Formative assessment, or diagnostic testing as the National Board of Professional Teaching

Standards argues, serves to create effective teaching curricula and classroom-specific
evaluations. By focusing on student-centered activities, a student is able to relate the
[34]

material to his life and experiences. Students are encouraged to think critically and to develop
analytical skills. This type of testing allows for a teacher's lesson plan to be clear, creative,
and reflective of the curriculum (T.P Scot et al., 2009).[35]

Based on the Appalachian Education Laboratory (AEL), "diagnostic testing" emphasizes

effective teaching practices while "considering learners' experiences and their unique
conceptions" (T.P Scot et al., 2009). Furthermore, it provides the framework for "efficient
[36]

retrieval and application"(T.P Scot et al., 2009). by urging students to take charge of their
[36]

education. The implications of this type of testing,is developing a knowledgeable student with
deep understanding of the information and then be able to account for a students'
comprehension on a subject.
Specific applications
The following are examples of application of formative assessment to content areas:

In math education

In math education, it is important for teachers to see how their students approach the problems
and how much mathematical knowledge and at what level students use when solving the
problems. That is, knowing how students think in the process of learning or problem solving
makes it possible for teachers to help their students overcome conceptual difficulties and, in
turn, improve learning. In that sense, formative assessment is diagnostic. To employ
formative assessment in the classrooms, a teacher has to make sure that each student
participates in the learning process by expressing their ideas; there is a trustful environment -
in which students can provide each other with feedback; s/he (the teacher) provides students
with feedback; and the instruction is modified according to students' needs. In math classes,
thought revealing activities such as model-eliciting activities (MEAs) and generative activities
provide good opportunities for covering these aspects of formative assessment.

Feedback examples

Here are some examples of possible feedback for students in math education: [18]

 Student: "I just don't get it." Teacher: "Well, the first part is just like the last
problem you did. Then we add one more variable. See if you can find out what it
is, and I'll come back in a few minutes."
 "There are 5 answers here that are incorrect. Try to find them and fix them."
 "The answer to this question is... Can you find a way to work it out?"
 "You've used substitution to solve all of these systems of equations. Can you use
elimination now to solve them?"

Different approaches for feedback encourage pupils to reflect: [37]

 "You used two different methods to solve these problems. Can you explain the
advantages and disadvantages of each method?"
 "You seem to have a good understanding of... Can you make up your own more
difficult problem?"

Another method has students looking to each other to gain knowledge.

 "You seem to be confusing sine and cosine. Talk to Katie about the differences
with the two."
 "Compare your work with Ali and write some advice to another student tackling
this topic for the first time."

Formative assessment in second/foreign language education

As an ongoing assessment it focuses on the process, it helps teachers to check the current
status of their students’ language ability, that is, they can know what the students know and
what the students do not know. It also gives chances to students to participate in modifying or
planning the upcoming classes (Bachman & Palmer, 1996). Participation in their learning
[38]
grows students’ motivation to learn the target language. It also raises students’ awareness on
their target languages, which results in resetting their own goals. In consequence, it helps
students to achieve their goals successfully as well as teachers be the facilitators to foster
students’ target language ability.

In classroom, short quizzes, reflectionals journals, or portfolios could be used as a formative

assessment (Cohen, 1994). [39]

Formative assessment in elementary education

In primary schools, it is used to inform the next steps of learning. Teachers and students both
use formative assessments as a tool to make decisions based on data. Formative assessment
occurs when teachers feed information back to students in ways that enable the student to
learn better, or when students can engage in a similar, self-reflective process. The evidence
shows that high quality formative assessment does have a powerful impact on student
learning. Black and Wiliam (1998) report that studies of formative assessment show an effect
size on standardized tests of between 0.4 and 0.7, larger than most known educational
interventions. (The effect size is the ratio of the average improvement in test scores in the
innovation to the range of scores of typical groups of pupils on the same tests; Black and
Wiliam recognize that standardized tests are very limited measures of learning.) Formative
assessment is particularly effective for students who have not done well in school, thus
narrowing the gap between low and high achievers while raising overall achievement.
Research examined by Black and Wiliam supports the conclusion that summative assessments
tend to have a negative effect on student learning.

Activities that can be used as formative assessment tools in mathematics and science
classrooms
Model-eliciting activities (MEAs)

Model-eliciting activities are based on real-life situations where students, working in small
groups, present a mathematical model as a solution to a client’s need (Zawojewski &
Carmona, 2001). The problem design enables students to evaluate their solutions according
[40]

to the needs of a client identified in the problem situation and sustain themselves in
productive, progressively effective cycles of conceptualizing and problem solving. Model-
eliciting activities (MEAs) are ideally structured to help students build their real-world sense
of problem solving towards increasingly powerful mathematical constructs. What is especially
useful for mathematics educators and researchers is the capacity of MEAs to make students’
thinking visible through their models and modeling cycles. Teachers do not prompt the use of
particular mathematical concepts or their representational counterparts when presenting the
problems. Instead, they choose activities that maximize the potential for students to develop
the concepts that are the focal point in the curriculum by building on their early and intuitive
ideas. The mathematical models emerge from the students’ interactions with the problem
situation and learning is assessed via these emergent behaviors.

Generative activities

In a generative activity, students are asked to come up with outcomes that are mathematically
same. Students can arrive at the responses or build responses from this sameness in a wide
range of ways. The sameness gives coherence to the task and allows it to be an
"organizational unit for performing a specific function." (Stroup et al., 2004)
Other activities can also be used as the means of formative assessment as long as they ensure
the participation of every student, make students' thoughts visible to each other and to the
teacher, promote feedback to revise and refine thinking. In addition, as a complementary to all
of these is to modify and adapt instruction through the information gathered by those
activities.

Formative assessment in computer-supported learning

Many academics are seeking to diversify assessment tasks, broaden the range of skills
assessed and provide students with more timely and informative feedback on their progress.
Others are wishing to meet student expectations for more flexible delivery and to generate
efficiencies in assessment that can ease academic staff workloads. The move to on-
line and computer based assessment is a natural outcome of the increasing use of information
and communication technologies to enhance learning. As more students seek flexibility in
their courses, it seems inevitable there will be growing expectations for flexible assessment as
well. When implementing online and computer-based instruction, it is recommended that a
structured framework or model be used to guide the assessment.

Formative assessment in UK education

In the UK education system, formative assessment (or assessment for learning) has been a key
aspect of the agenda for personalised learning. The Working Group on 14–19 Reform led
by Sir Mike Tomlinson, recommended that assessment of learners be refocused to be more
teacher-led and less reliant on external assessment, putting learners at the heart of the
assessment process. [41]

The UK government has stated that personalised learning depends on teachers knowing the
[42]

strengths and weaknesses of individual learners, and that a key means of achieving this is
through formative assessment, involving high quality feedback to learners included within
every teaching session. [43]

The Assessment Reform Group has set out the following 10 principles for formative
assessment. [44]

Learning should:

 be part of effective planning of teaching and learning

 focus on how students learning attitude
 be recognised as central to classroom practice
 be regarded as a key professional skill for teachers
 be sensitive and constructive because any assessment has an emotional impact
 take account of the importance of learner motivation
 promote commitment to learning goals and a shared understanding of the criteria
by which they are assessed
 enable learners to receive constructive guidance about how to improve
 develop learners’ capacity for self-assessment so that they can become reflective
and self-managing
 recognise the full range of achievements of all learners
Benefits of formative assessments for teachers (Boston, 2002)
 Teachers are able to determine what standards students already know and to what
degree.
 Teachers can decide what minor modifications or major changes in instruction
they need to make so that all students can succeed in upcoming instruction and
on subsequent assessments.
 Teachers can create appropriate lessons and activities for groups of learners or
individual students.
 Teachers can inform students about their current progress in order to help them
set goals for improvement. [45]

Benefits for students

 Students are more motivated to learn.
 Students take responsibility for their own learning.
 Students can become users of assessment alongside the teacher.
 Students learn valuable lifelong skills such as self-evaluation, self-assessment,
and goal setting.
 Students become more adept at self-assessment [46][47][48]

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