Formative Classroom Assessment Research Articles

Using digital technology to enhance formative assessment in mathematics classrooms

AbstractIn this paper, which is based on research from the EU‐funded project Improving Progress through Formative Assessment in Science and Mathematics Education, we explore how iPads are used within formative assessment processes by six mathematics teachers and their classes in two secondary comprehensive schools in the Midlands of England. A design research approach is first used to develop and trial six lessons in which iPads are used in different ways within formative assessment processes. Through lesson observations, video analysis and teacher interviews we then examine how iPad technology contributes to these processes, the functions it performs and the distribution of activity between the main actors (teacher, technology and student). An analytic approach is developed which captures the interactions in visual representations, showing how the technology is often used as a form of communication but also performs more active functions which affect the role taken by the teacher in formative processes. The study offers insight into ways in which iPad technology contributes to effective student learning through formative assessment and introduces an analytic approach that may be useful for further studies.

Testing the effectiveness of classroom formative assessment in Dutch primary mathematics education

ABSTRACTClassroom formative assessment (CFA) is considered to be a fundamental part of effective teaching, as it is presumed to enhance student performance. However, there is only limited empirical evidence to support this notion. In this effect study, a quasi-experiment was conducted to compare 2 conditions. In the treatment condition, 17 teachers implemented a CFA model containing both daily and weekly goal-directed instruction, assessment, and immediate instructional feedback for students who needed additional support. In the control condition, 17 teachers implemented a modification to their usual practice. They assessed their students’ mastery of learning goals on the basis of half-yearly mathematics tests, and prepared weekly pre-teaching sessions for groups of low-achieving students. The posttests showed no significant differences in student performance between the 2 conditions after controlling for student and teacher characteristics. The degree of implementation of the CFA model, however, appeared to be positively related to the 5th-grade students’ performance.

Formative assessment and feedback in interactive classroom: Usage of mobile technology

Bu calismanin amaci, sinif ici donut-duzetme saglamada mobil teknoloji kullaniminin ogrenci goruslerine bagli bir degerlendirmesini yapmaktir. Bu amacla, tasarlanan sistem universite seviyesinde ogrencilerle kullanilmistir. Calisma grubu, Fen-Edebiyat Fakultesi, Makine Muhendisligi Bolumu, birinci sinifa kayitli ogrencilerden olusmaktadir. Fizik I dersinde kullanilan sistem ile ilgili ogrenci gorusleri odak grup gorusme formu ile alinmistir. Form; sistemin etkili oldugu yonu, zayif oldugu yonu, basariya ve motivasyona olan etkisi, hissiyat ve oneriler gibi faktorlerde etki boyutunu belirlemeye yonelik acik uclu sorular icermektedir. Nitel arastirma yaklasimin kullanildigi bu calismada, ogrenci gorusleri yazili metin haline cevrilmis ve metin icerik analizi ile ogrenci goruslerine bagli betimsel temalar olusturulmustur. Elde edilen bulgular sonucunda, sistemin aktif katilim, tekrar ve karsilastirmada etkili oldugu, basariya katki sagladigi, ogrencilerin derse yonelik motivasyonlarinda etkili olmadigi ortaya cikmistir. Ayrica, sistemin daha etkili bir sekilde kullanilmasinda donut-duzeltme ile sinif ici tartisma ve degerlendirmelerin onemli oldugu; bu ortamin olusturulmasinda ise ders ogretmenin ozel bir yeri oldugu sonucu ortaya cikmistir.

Junior and Senior High School EFL Teachers’ Use of Formative Assessment: A Mixed-Methods Study

ABSTRACTDespite the rising interest in the practice of formative assessment (FA) in language classrooms, research has rarely examined the factors that contribute to differential use of FA. The present study adopts an explanatory sequential mixed-method design to examine differences in FA use among Japanese junior and senior high school EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers. Based on Wiliam’s (2010) model of FA strategies, quantitative analysis of a large-scale survey classified 727 participants into three levels (high, middle, and low) of FA use. In the qualitative follow-up phase, four selected survey respondents were interviewed and observed. The results indicated varying degrees of FA use among teachers, suggesting that the four FA variables (intentions, methods, purposes, and feedback) derived from Wiliam’s model succeeded in identifying differential degrees of FA use.

Reviewing the Challenges of Implementing Formative Assessment in Asia: The Need for a Professional Development Program

This paper aims to review research on the challenges of implementing formative assessment in Asian classrooms. Multiple electronic databases were used to search for relevant articles and twenty-one studies were selected. The challenges faced while conducting formative assessments were analyzed and categorized into three levels (micro-, meso- and macro- level) based on Kozma’s model, which examines contextual factors influencing teachers’ classroom instructional practice as well as inherent disadvantages of formative assessment, namely, being time-consuming and demanding a heavy workload. The findings showed that the majority of challenges were on the micro and macro-levels, and were basic formative assessment disadvantages. Significantly, 80 percent of the studies reviewed reported inadequate knowledge of formative assessment among teachers at the micro-level. This is a vital issue for future research on formative assessment in Asian countries and highlights the need to draw more attention to training teachers through effective professional development programs. Future studies in this area should focus on practical formative assessment activities to reconcile formative assessment theories within the Asian culture and conditions.

Exploring Teachers’ Assessment Practices and Skills

The need for increased use of test results to improve educational outcomes is urgent; yet, there is little understanding in the research literature of practitioners’ knowledge and skills in interpreting and using educational data (test results) to enhance classroom instruction and student learning. This study aims to survey 40 high school teachers who work in El Jadida region, distributed between males and females, of different years of experience, with the purpose of learning about their assessment practices, and identifying the barriers that prevent thoughtful applications of formative assessment in classrooms. A questionnaire and an interview were used as a data collection technique. The findings point to use of a varied number of assessment strategies ranging from homework assignments to in-class written tests but mainly for summative purposes. In light of the results, the study ends with implications for teachers and policy makers.

Developing classroom formative assessment in dutch primary mathematics education

In the last two decades Dutch primary school students scored below expectation in international mathematics tests. An explanation for this may be that teachers fail to adequately assess their students’ understanding of learning goals and provide timely feedback. To improve the teachers’ formative assessment practice, researchers, curriculum experts and teachers worked together to develop a model for classroom formative assessment (CFA). In three pilot studies, six teachers from three different schools implemented the CFA-model and evaluated its feasibility together with the researchers by means of checklists. The CFA-model was primarily changed with regard to the assessment techniques. Teachers indicated that classroom management and preparation time were preconditions for an optimal implementation. Analysis of covariance was used to explore students’ learning outcomes. The results showed that a correct implementation of the CFA-model might result in the enhancement of students’ mathematical performance. The implications of the three pilots for the implementation of the CFA-model on a larger scale are discussed.

Formative Assessment in Oral English Classroom and Alleviation of Speaking Apprehension

Researches on Language Anxiety have aroused public concern around/ the world, most of which suggest that language anxiety exerts a detrimental influence to language learners in their process of language learning. Chinese English learners usually do a good job in passing all kinds of English test while are poor at oral English referred as “dumb English”. It is safe to conclude that “dumb English” is the best manifestation of foreign language anxiety. Formative assessment characterized by being interactive among students themselves, peers, and teacher, highlights the immediate and effective feedback to learners, which is in accordance with the nature of student-centered approach. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of applying formative assessment in oral English class to alleviate students’ speaking apprehension. Two innate classes are chosen to be the controlled class and experimental class. Data in students’ English classroom speaking anxiety scale is collected and analyzed after pre-test and post-test together with an interview. It is revealed in this study that the implementation of formative assessment in oral English classroom is proved to be effective to alleviate students’ speaking anxiety in experimental class. In response to this finding, implications for practical practice of formative assessment in oral English classroom are discussed.

Renewing Assessment Practices: Literacy Teaching and Learning in Digital Environments

Interpretations of “literacy” and approaches to literacy pedagogy and assessment are under renewal as meaning-making and learning are increasingly situated in digitized environments. While the implications of these shifts are in part technological, they are also relational, as students are increasingly positioned as interactive with participatory roles in self-knowledge and increased responsibility for their learning. However, while shifts are occurring in understandings of literacy and approaches to literacy pedagogy, the same cannot be said for the way in which assessments of digital literacies are undertaken. There is a lack of valid, reliable, and practical assessments of new literacies to inform and help students to become better prepared for study, work, and citizenship in digital environments. This article maps five characteristics of effective formative assessment in print-based classrooms with seven affordancesin digital learning and assessment to suggest an analytical framework for examining teacher and student assessment in digital environments. Drawing on data from a research project in which a team of teachers introduced a one-to-one computing program and worked to renew their literacy assessment practices, this article discusses how each of the seven affordances are enacted in the assessment practices in a years five and six primary school classroom. The findings from this research project show that educational technologies have the potential to enable new approaches to teaching, learning, and assessment that better align with the needs of twenty-first century literacy learners. The findings alsosupport approaches to formative assessment that value print and multimodality and engage students in more flexible and differentiated ways. They can enable teachers and students to be re-positioned as designers, knowledge producers, and collaborative learners. The seven affordances provide a framework that holds rich possibilities for teacher learning and planning as prompts to support reflection on formative assessment practices, critique habitual practices, and considernew opportunities.

Confidence and competence with mathematical procedures

Confidence assessment (CA), in which students state alongside each of their answers a confidence level expressing how certain they are, has been employed successfully within higher education. However, it has not been widely explored with school pupils. This study examined how school mathematics pupils (N = 345) in five different secondary schools in England responded to the use of a CA instrument designed to incentivise the eliciting of truthful confidence ratings in the topic of directed (positive and negative) numbers. Pupils readily understood the negative marking aspect of the CA process and their facility correlated with their mean confidence with r = .546, N = 336, p < .001, indicating that pupils were generally well calibrated. Pupils’ comments indicated that the vast majority were positive about the CA approach, despite its dramatic differences from more usual assessment practices in UK schools. Some pupils felt that CA promoted deeper thinking, increased their confidence and had a potential role to play in classroom formative assessment.

Implementing curriculum-embedded formative assessment in primary school science classrooms

The implementation of formative assessment strategies is challenging for teachers. We evaluated teachers’ implementation fidelity of a curriculum-embedded formative assessment programme for primary school science education, investigating both material-supported, direct application and subsequent transfer. Furthermore, the relationship between implementation fidelity and teacher variables was explored. N = 17 German primary school teachers participated in professional development on formative assessment, N = 11 teachers formed a control group. Teachers’ implementation fidelity was evaluated via classroom observations student ratings and an analysis of students’ workbooks, focusing on the frequency and quality of intended formative assessment elements (assessments, feedback and instructional adaptations). Regarding direct application, treatment group teachers’ implementation fidelity was high, with slight variations in quality. Regarding transfer, implementation fidelity was lower but teachers still implemented more formative assessment elements than the control group. Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and their evaluation of the formative assessment intervention were associated with implementation success.

The Common Core State Standards: An Opportunity to Enhance Formative Assessment in History/Social Studies Classrooms

This article discusses the opportunity that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) present for enhancing formative assessment (FA) in history and social studies classrooms. There is evidence that FA can enhance learning for students if implemented well. Unfortunately, teachers continue to be challenged in implementing FA in their classrooms. We examined reading standards for literacy in history and social studies in lesson plans created by preservice teachers in order to discuss opportunities presented by the CCSS for enhancing FA.

Effects of conceptual, procedural, and declarative reflection on students’ structural knowledge in physics

Reflection has recently been emphasized as a constructive pedagogical activity. However, little attention has been given to the quality of reflections that students write. In this study, we explored the reflections that students make about their knowledge organization as part of a formative learning activity. More specifically, we assessed the knowledge structures of Grade 11 physics students and their instructors using pathfinder networks (PFnets). Each student’s knowledge structure was compared with the instructors’ averaged knowledge structure in order to identify student misconceptions. As an intervention, students were asked to write reflections on the discrepancies between their knowledge structure and their instructors’ averaged knowledge structure. The students’ reflections were divided into the following three categories depending on the type of knowledge constructed in those reflections: (1) conceptual, (2) procedural, or (3) declarative. Evidence was provided by the study that reflection was an effective means of improving students’ knowledge structure. However, conceptual reflections were the most effective, followed by procedural and declarative reflection. Implications for formative classroom assessment are discussed.

There is another choice: an exploration of integrating formative assessment in a Chinese high school chemistry classroom through collaborative action research

This study explored integrating formative assessment to a Chinese high school chemistry classroom, where the extremely high-stakes testing and Confucian-heritage culture constituted a particular context, through a collaborative action research. One researcher worked with a high school chemistry teacher in China to integrate formative assessment into his teaching with 54 students in one of his classes. Data resources included transcripts from planning sessions, lesson plans, teacher interviews, classroom observations, student work, student interviews and surveys. The findings of this study revealed that as the teacher allowed his original views about students’ learning and assessment tasks to be challenged by the students’ learning, his teaching practice and understandings of formative assessment were transformed. Students’ learning experience was also examined in the formative assessment process. The potentials and challenges of integrating formative assessment in the Chinese high school science classroom are discussed. This study indicated that formative assessment is promising to implement in Chinese high school science classrooms to enhance students’ learning and meet the imperative needs for high-stakes exam preparation as well; and writing formative assessment tasks are favorable in this particular socio-cultural context. Further, this study suggested that facilitating in-service science teachers to integrate formative assessment through collaborative action research is a powerful professional development on improving teaching and learning under the highly constraint context.

Formative assessment: translating high‐level curriculum principles into classroom practice

The curriculum is the totality of experiences which are planned for young learners through their education, wherever they are being educated. It determines the ethos of the school as a learning community, curriculum subjects and areas, interdisciplinary learning, and opportunities to attain personal and learning goals. An effective curriculum, which meets the needs of the twenty‐first century learner improves numeracy and literacy, promotes health and well‐being, and supports the social and technical skills required for learning, life and work (lifelong learning). Relatively recent developments in the policy frameworks of numerous nations have seen the implementation of an interactive style of teaching and learning called formative assessment. Formative classroom assessment is a potentially powerful instructional process because the practice of sharing assessment information that supports learning is embedded into the instructional process by design. This article uses a range of sources, including policy and framework documentation relating to the development and implementation of a curriculum which drives interactive assessment practices designed to make evidence of learning visible as assessment data with potentially lifelong effects. The purpose of this article is to delineate a ‘formative curriculum’ designed to drive classroom practices that create responsible citizens, confident individuals, effective contributors, and successful learners.

Bringing formative classroom assessment to schools and making it count

Purpose– The purpose of this article is to present alternative views on the theory and practice offormative assessment (FA), or assessment to support teaching and learning in classrooms, with the purpose of highlighting its value in education and informing discussions on educational assessment policy.Methodology/approach– The method used is a “moderated policy discussion”. The six invited commentaries on the theme represent perspectives of leading scholars and measurement experts juxtaposed against voices of prominent school district leaders from two education systems in the USA. The discussion is moderated with introductory and concluding remarks from the guest editor and is excerpted from a recent blog published byEducation Week. References and author biographies are presented at the end of the article.Findings– While current assessment policies in the USA push for greater accountability in schools by increasing large scale testing of students, the authors underscore the importance of FA integrated with classroom teaching and learning. They define what formative classroom assessment means in theory and in practice, consider barriers to more widespread use of FA practices and address what educational policy makers could do to facilitate a FA “work culture” in schools.Originality/value– The commentators, representing scholar and practitioner perspectives, examine the problem in a multi-faceted manner and offer research-based, practical and policy solutions to the observed issues in FA. Dialogue among stakeholders, as presented here, is a key first step in enacting assessment reforms in the directions discussed.

Student teachers developing a critical understanding of formative assessment in the modern foreign languages classroom on an initial teacher education course

With evidence that formative assessment supports pupils’ learning, it follows that that there is a need to develop student teachers’ assessment competence. However, in some teacher education programmes, learning about pupil assessment is often relegated to a late stage. This can lead to student teachers’ perceptions of assessment as an ‘add on’ rather than an ongoing process of dialogue and feedback. This article discusses the findings of a year-long research project, in which modern foreign languages (MFL) student teachers undertook a systematic meta-reflection on formative assessment that was embedded in their year-long training course. The study draws on data obtained from an initial written reflection and three focus group discussions spread over the year. The student teachers, who were found to be generally inclined to formative practices in their teaching, progressed in their patterns of understanding, as well as in finding ways to implement formative assessment in the form of practical Assessment for Learning (AfL) strategies in the languages classroom. Their reflections and discussion in the university setting about classroom experimentation with formative assessment enabled them to go beyond the boundaries of summative orientations of assessment in schools and to adopt a new mindset towards assessment, teaching and learning. The article concludes that initial teacher education courses that focus on assessment are well positioned to support this kind of learning process.

Deep Impact: How a Job-Embedded Formative Assessment Professional Development Model Affected Teacher Practice

This study supports the work of Black and Wiliam (1998), who demonstrated that when teachers effectively utilize formative assessment strategies, student learning increases significantly. However, the researchers also found a “poverty of practice” among teachers, in that few fully understood how to implement classroom formative assessment. This qualitative case study examined a series of voluntary workshops offered at one middle school designed to address this poverty of practice. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews. These research questions framed the study: (1) What role did a professional learning community structure play in shaping workshop participants’ perceived effectiveness of a voluntary formative assessment initiative? (2) How did this initiative affect workshop participants’ perceptions of their knowledge of formative assessment and differentiation strategies? (3) How did it affect workshop participants’ perceptions of their abilities to teach others about formative assessment and differentiated instruction? (4) How did it affect school-wide use of classroom-level strategies?Results indicated that teacher workshop participants experienced a growth in their capacity to use and teach others various formative assessment strategies, and even non-participating teachers reported greater use of formative assessment in their own instruction. Workshop participants and non-participating teachers perceived little growth in the area of differentiation of instruction, which contradicted some administrator perceptions.

Formative assessment in Confucian heritage culture classrooms: activity theory analysis of tensions, contradictions and hybrid practices

Formative assessment has recently become a preferred assessment strategy in educational institutions worldwide. However, it is not easy to implement in Asian classrooms, because local cultures and institutional constraints potentially hinder the practice. This one-semester study aimed to use the ‘third space’, as the core of the third generation of activity theory, as a frame to capture how Vietnamese teachers took into account both traditional practices and contemporary influences to transform formative assessment practices to make them feasible in their classrooms. Participants were 2 lecturers and 250 students from two college classes in Vietnam. The results showed that Vietnamese students’ conceptions of learning were heavily influenced by examinations and their traditional learning culture. Consequently, the teachers needed to transform the initiative to align with these features in Vietnamese classrooms. When the revisions were made, the students were evidenced to achieve a growth in learning, change their beliefs about learning and develop both self-learning and collective learning.

Exploring formative assessment in primary school classrooms: Developing a framework of actions and strategies

The importance of formative assessment in facilitating student learning has been well established in the literature. However, defining and implementing formative assessment in classroom settings is a rather complicated task. The aim of this study is to explore formative assessment, as implemented in primary classrooms in Cyprus, and develop a framework of action for analysing and understanding formative assessment processes. The research was qualitative, interpretive, collaborative, and guided by the ethics of care. Four primary school teachers of the third and fourth grade participated in the study. The teachers differ in their teaching experience and gender. Data collection was based on non-participant classroom observations, teachers’ interviews and documentary analysis of children’s work for written feedback. The analysis of the data was carried out using the constant comparative method and revealed five distinctive processes of formative assessment: (a) Articulation/communication of expectancies and success criteria, (b) Elicitation and collection of information, (c) Interpretation of information/judgement, (d) Providing feedback, and (e) Taking action/regulation of learning. The analysis also pointed the confusions arising from the various interpretations of the concept and the difficulties in implementing effectively formative assessment in classroom settings. Implications of the findings for policy and practice are drawn and suggestions for further research are finally provided.