A Framework for Mobile-Assisted Formative Assessment to Promote Students’ Self-Determination

Stavros A Nikou,Anastasios A Economides

doi:10.3390/fi13050116

Stavros A Nikou, Anastasios A Economides

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/fi13050116

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Abstract

Motivation is an important issue to consider when designing learning activities, including mobile learning and assessment. While previous research provides evidence for the motivational impact of mobile learning, not many pedagogical frameworks exist for the design of mobile-assisted learning and assessment. The current study is grounded in the Self-Determination Theory of motivation and proposes a pedagogical framework for mobile-assisted formative assessment, aiming at enhancing student motivation. For a preliminary evaluation of the framework, fifty-one students from a public European high school participated in a series of formative assessment activities. The tasks that were implemented according to the proposed mobile-based formative assessment framework had a significant positive impact on student perceived levels of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, enhancing students’ intrinsic motivation levels. Study findings highlighted the capacity of the proposed framework to guide the design of mobile-based formative assessment activities that enhance and promote student motivation. The study makes a theoretical contribution by proposing a framework that aligns mobile learning and assessment with elements of the Self-Determination Theory of motivation and also has a practical contribution by implementing mobile learning and assessment practices that have the potential to promote student motivation.

Highlights

Formative assessment or assessment for learning is defined as the “assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting students’ learning” (p. 10) [1]
The current study proposes a framework that is grounded on a motivation theory and leverages mobile technologies to guide the design of mobile-assisted formative assessments that can promote motivation
To shed more light on the motivational impact of mobile learning and assessment, the current study proposes a framework that utilizes the capacity of mobile technologies to support formative assessment activities having the potential to promote student motivation by enhancing their autonomy, competence, and relatedness

Summary

Introduction

Formative assessment or assessment for learning is defined as the “assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting students’ learning” (p. 10) [1]. Features of mobile technologies, such as ubiquity and context-awareness, personalization and adaptivity, interactivity and immediate feedback provision, facilitate the integration of assessment within teaching and learning and have the potential to transform formative assessment into a more embedded and pervasive instructional method [7,8,9]. The conceptual framework in [18], based on the activity theory, acknowledged the role of mobile-supported collaborative learning activities in enhancing motivation. The pedagogical framework in [19], based on the transactional distance theory, addressed the role of social interactions in supporting motivation, especially for activities with low transactional distance. Context-awareness, defined as the detection of the situation of the learner in the real world and the provision of adaptive support or guidance [22], is another feature of mobile technologies that has been linked to motivation. In [23], the context-aware personalized mobile self-assessment framework suggested that learning adapted to the learning context can positively influence motivation

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