Formative Assessment In Education

Learning is more commonly conceptualized as a process that students actively construct their own knowledge and skills instead of characterizing it as a simple acquisition process based on teacher transmission (Barr and Tagg, 1995; DeCorte, 1996; Nicol, 1997). Students interact with subject content, discuss it with others, in order to internalize meaning and make connections with what is already known. Terms like ‘student-centered learning’ is one reflection of this new way of thinking. The core assumptions are active engagement in learning and learner responsibility for the management of learning in this new way of thinking (Lea et al., 2003). As seen learning is a process that students are to be engaged and take responsibility in stages of

Under this definition, it can be said that assessments become formative when the information is used to adapt teaching and learning to meet student needs. When teachers know how students are progressing and where they are having trouble, they can use this information to make necessary instructional adjustments. These adjustments may be reteaching, trying alternative instructional approaches, or offering more opportunities for practice and they can improve student success. Black and Wiliam (1998a) conducted an extensive research review of 250 journal articles and book chapters winnowed from a much larger pool to determine whether formative assessment raises academic standards in the classroom. They found out that formative assessment produce significant learning gains as measured by comparing the average improvements in the test scores of the students involved in the innovation with the range of scores found for typical groups of students on the same tests. Effect sizes ranged between .4 and .7, with formative assessment apparently helping low-achieving students, including students with learning disabilities, even more than it helped other students (Black and Wiliam,

The most helpful type of feedback on tests and homework provides specific comments about errors and specific suggestions for improvement. It also encourages students to focus their attention thoughtfully on the task rather than on getting the true answer (Bangert-Drowns; Elawar and Corno, 1985). This type of feedback may be particularly helpful to lower achieving students. Because it emphasizes that students can improve as a result of effort. Thus it can be said that formative assessment supports the expectation that all children can learn to high levels and poor performance students who has the lack of ability and therefore become discouraged and unwilling can benefit from it. While feedback generally originates from a teacher, learners are also supposed to play an important role in formative assessment through self-evaluation. Two experimental research studies have shown that students who understand the learning objectives and assessment criteria and have opportunities to reflect on their work show greater improvement than those who do not (Fontana and Fernandes, 1994). Students with learning disabilities who are taught to use self-monitoring strategies related to their understanding of reading and writing tasks also show performance gains