formative assessment in language education

A Review of Formative Language Assessment Research and Implications for Practitioners

• First Online: 04 March 2023

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• Tony Burner 4  

Part of the book series: New Language Learning and Teaching Environments ((NLLTE))

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Formative assessment is any assessment that promotes students’ learning. Learner-centeredness is vital for formative assessment or assessment for learning to succeed. This chapter reviews the most recent research on formative language assessment and sums up the implications for practitioners. Database searches in the largest databases for educational research (ERIC and SCOPUS) with a combination of the keywords “formative”, “language” and “assessment” were conducted. The searches were limited to the last five years (2016–2021) and to peer-reviewed articles only. The analysis categorized the articles’ contents according to the nature of formative assessment (e.g., peer assessment, self-assessment, portfolio assessment), the mode of formative assessment (e.g., written, oral, multimodal), the context of formative assessment (e.g., country, class level, language subject, duration) and the methods used (e.g., observations, interviews, surveys). A final synthesis of the findings resulted in practical advice for practitioners and possible further avenues for research and development projects in schools.

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Burner, T. (2023). A Review of Formative Language Assessment Research and Implications for Practitioners. In: Chong, S.W., Reinders, H. (eds) Innovation in Learning-Oriented Language Assessment. New Language Learning and Teaching Environments. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18950-0_2

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Article Contents

• Introduction
• Conceptualizing formative assessment
• Task-based language teaching
• Formative assessment in task-based language teaching
• Acknowledgement
• < Previous

Illustrating formative assessment in task-based language teaching

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• Figures & tables
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Zhengdong Gan, Constant Leung, Illustrating formative assessment in task-based language teaching, ELT Journal , Volume 74, Issue 1, January 2020, Pages 10–19, https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccz048

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There has been an increasing professional and policy interest in using formative assessment as part of the learning process in the classroom, with increasing numbers of educators regarding it as an effective means of closing the gap between students’ current and desired performance. However, there is a range of different views on what actually constitutes formative assessment and how it may be incorporated into regular classroom teaching. Furthermore, formative assessment is often misconstrued in reality, and teachers face considerable challenges in implementing formative assessment in their daily classes, particularly in the ESL teaching context. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to review how formative assessment has recently been discussed in both general education and L2 assessment fields, and to illustrate how formative assessment can be implemented in task-based language teaching in the daily ESL classroom.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Formative Assessment

Introduction, the evolution of formative assessment.

• Theory and Formative Assessment
• Formative Assessment and Student Achievement
• The Role of Feedback in Formative Assessment
• Formative Assessment Process and Practice in the Classroom?
• Formative Assessment as Part of a Balanced Assessment System
• Developing Teacher Capacity for Formative Assessment
• National and International Reports

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Formative Assessment by Leslie W. Grant , Christopher R. Gareis , Sarah P. Hylton LAST REVIEWED: 29 July 2020 LAST MODIFIED: 26 May 2021 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0062

Formative assessment has received international attention as an instructional approach that has great potential to improve teaching and learning. The concept has roots in educational evaluation practices and has evolved over time, from a focus on formative evaluation to formative assessment or assessment for learning. Although one singular definition has not emerged among researchers, scholars, and practitioners, shared themes across the sources suggest the emergence of common elements of formative assessment: Formative assessment is a cyclical process that involves interactions among teachers and students. Those interactions include prompting thinking and eliciting information. The information is then gathered and analyzed by both the teacher and the students. Finally, teachers and students provide feedback, and the student makes use of the feedback to either confirm or improve their understandings and/or skills. Research into these common elements will continue to inform our evolving understanding of the formative assessment process. This article first addresses the evolution of formative assessment and the theories that have informed the conceptualization of and research into the formative assessment process. The work of the Assessment Reform Group in the 1990s catapulted formative assessment into the spotlight for teacher education programs, teacher professional development, and educational research primarily due to claims of the impact on student achievement. This article provides often cited, seminal research studies claiming to provide evidence of a link between formative assessment and student achievement. Being central to the formative assessment process, works addressing the role of feedback are explored. The next two sections focus on works that have emerged to support implementation of the formative assessment process in the classroom and works to support the development of balanced assessment systems that include formative assessment at both the classroom and the school system levels. Over time, professional organizations have developed and revised standards to address both uses of assessments, to include formative assessments, in the classroom as well as standards for the development of educator knowledge, skills, and dispositions. The standards provided in this article represent the most referenced standards in the assessment and evaluation field. Finally, national reports from the United States and international reports noted in the final section provide insight into evolving policies and practices and signal the emergence over time of agreement on common elements of the formative assessment process.

Formative assessment has become a mainstay in educational discourse and practice. The first reference to the term “formative” has roots in curriculum development and evaluation. Cronbach 1963 refers to the idea of using evaluation as a tool for improving curricular programs. Scriven 1967 builds on Cronbach’s work in proposing the term “formative” as a way of clarifying the roles of evaluation. Bloom 1971 applies Scriven’s definition to the process of teaching and learning, by using the term to describe a way of improving student learning. Bloom, et al. 1971 links the idea of formative evaluation to the instructional approach of mastery learning as an instructional process that includes the use of data to improve both teaching and learning. During the 1980s and 1990s, educational researchers continued to expand on the ideas and theories proposed, and use of the term “formative evaluation” was replaced by the term “formative assessment.” Sadler 1989 builds on the definitions previously offered, highlighting the role of the student in the assessment process and viewing student self-assessment as critical to improved student learning. First published in 1994, Gipps 2012 documents the shift in how the educational community views assessment, including a shift from a psychometric view to the development of assessments and use of assessment data by teachers to guide instruction. The is distinguished as a classic text and it was thus reprinted in 2012. During the 1990s and the early 2000s, the Assessment Reform Group in the United Kingdom focused on the development of formative assessment practices and provided a definition of formative assessment. Written by Assessment Reform Group members, Harlen and James 1997 affirms that a distinction between formative and summative assessment is needed due to the confluence of these two roles of assessment in the field. The term “assessment for learning” was first coined in Assessment Reform Group 1999 to further delineate the differences between the goals and roles of summative and formative assessment and extended by the vision of assessment not only for learning but also of learning and as learning found in Earl 2003 . Stiggins and Chappuis 2012 highlights the importance of assessment for learning and situates it as the key practice of classroom assessment.

Assessment Reform Group. 1999. Assessment for learning: Beyond the black box . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ., School of Education.

In this text, the authors first coin the term “assessment for learning” to distinguish it from the more conventional and long-standing notion of “assessment of learning.” The purpose of assessment of learning is to verify student learning, whereas the purpose of assessment for learning is to contribute to the acquisition, or forming, of learning.

Bloom, B. S. 1971. Learning for mastery. In Handbook on formative and summative evaluation of student learning . Edited by B. S. Bloom, J. T. Hastings, and G. F. Madaus, 43–57. New York: McGraw-Hill.

This book chapter connects the concept of mastery learning with formative evaluation. The author indicates that formative tests are used to gauge student learning, to diagnose difficulties, and to design interventions so that the student achieves mastery of a unit of instruction.

Bloom, B. S., J. T. Hastings, and G. F. Madaus. 1971. Formative evaluation. In Handbook on formative and summative evaluation of student learning . Edited by B. S. Bloom, J. T. Hastings, and G. F. Madaus, 117–138. New York: McGraw-Hill.

A book chapter that builds on Scriven’s definition of formative evaluation in curriculum development and implementation. The authors apply this definition to planning, instructional delivery, and student learning, with guidance on how to create assessments and use assessment data.

Cronbach, L. J. 1963. Course improvement through evaluation. Teacher’s College Record 64.8: 672–683.

In perhaps the earliest intimations of the concept of formative evaluation, Cronbach calls for an evaluation process that focuses on gathering and reporting information to use in guiding decisions in an educational program and in curriculum development while the program can be modified.

Earl, L.?M. 2003. Assessment as learning: Using classroom assessment to maximize student learning . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

The author describes a vision for the future of assessment as being composed of assessment of,for , and as learning. Principles of assessment for learning are illustrated with examples from multiple subject areas and grade levels. Assessment as learning focuses on the role of students as active participants in their own learning, which the author describes as virtually absent from most classrooms at the time of publication of the text.

Gipps, C. V. 2012. Beyond testing: Towards a theory of educational assessment . Classic ed. London: Routledge.

First published in 1994 in London by the Falmer publishing house, this book explores the evolution of how assessment is viewed. The author delineates the move from the psychometric view of assessment and a focus on testing to a classroom view of assessment that includes the development of a culture of assessment and a wider range of assessment tools and uses.

Harlen, W., and M. James. 1997. Assessment and learning: Differences and relationships between formative and summative assessment. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice 4.3: 365–379.

DOI: 10.1080/0969594970040304

In this article, the authors focus on providing clarity on the differences between formative and summative assessment. In addition, the authors provide conditions by which formative assessments can be used for summative purposes. These conditions include the use of external criteria for assessing student learning, viewing the results of formative assessment holistically across a period of instruction, and ensuring inter-rater reliability across teachers.

Sadler, D. R. 1989. Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science 18.2: 119–144.

DOI: 10.1007/BF00117714

In this article, Sadler focuses on the judgments made about the quality of student work, discussing not only who makes such judgments but also how they are made and used. He posits that students must be able to appraise their own work and draw on their own skills to make modifications to their learning, thus alluding to the intersection of formative and self-assessment. The importance of feedback is emphasized.

Scriven, M. 1967. The methodology of evaluation. In Perspectives of curriculum evaluation . Edited by R. W. Tyler, R. M. Gagné, and M. Scriven, 39–85. Rand McNally Education. Chicago: Rand McNally.

In this monograph, Scriven proposes the use of the terms “formative” and “summative” to provide clarity about roles and goals within the evaluation community. The role of formative evaluation is to make improvements while the focus of the evaluation can still be improved. By comparison, summative evaluation is used to determine the merit or worth of an educational program.

Stiggins, R. J., and J. Chappuis. 2012. An introduction to student-involved assessment FOR learning . 6th ed. Boston: Pearson.

This classic textbook on classroom assessment may be the earliest example of a text that uses assessment for learning as the organizing conceptual framework for the principles, strategies, and techniques that it presents. This textbook is written for pre-service teachers, and it accentuates the intentional involvement of students in gauging their own learning.

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FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

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Formative Assessment

John "Jack" States

Effective ongoing assessment, referred to in the education literature as formative assessment or progress monitoring, is indispensable in promoting teacher and student success. Feedback through formative assessment is ranked at or near the top of practices known to significantly raise student achievement. For decades, formative assessment has been found to be effective in clinical settings and, more important, in typical classroom settings. Formative assessment produces substantial results at a cost significantly below that of other popular school reform initiatives such as smaller class size, charter schools, accountability, and school vouchers. It also serves as a practical diagnostic tool available to all teachers. A core component of formal and informal assessment procedures, formative assessment allows teachers to quickly determine if individual students are progressing at acceptable rates and provides insight into where and how to modify and adapt lessons, with the goal of making sure that students do not fall behind.

Studies In Educational …

Anton Havnes , Olga Dysthe

Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness

Jason Harlacher

Teaching and learning English

Tony Burner

As is evident from chapter 17 in the book, assessment is a central aspect of the learning process. In this chapter, Tony Burner takes a closer look at formative assessment and how it can be incorporated in daily classroom routines. After discussing the concept of formative assessment and self-assessment, he explains the importance of formative feedback. Then he explores three forms of formative assessment, namely process writing, peer assessment and portfolio assessment.

Educational Assessment

Dylan Wiliam

welly ardiansyah

The use of formative assessments, or other diagnostic efforts within classrooms, provides information that should help facilitate improved pedagogical practices and instructional outcomes. However, a review of the formative assessment literature revealed that there is no agreed upon lexicon with regard to formative assessment and suspect methodological approaches in the efforts to demonstrate positive effects that could be attributed to formative assessments. Thus, the purpose of this article was to set out to clarify the terminology related to formative assessment and its usage

Bernie Moreno

Sharon Gedye

Journal of Education and Practice

Dr Ved K U M A R Mishra

Muhammad U Farooq

In principle, summative assessment (SA) and formative assessment FA are employed in educational settings for distinctly different purposes. The former is used mainly for administrative purposes and the latter for promoting students' academic competence and developing their self-learning skills. Strong evidence, however, could be traced in empirical research available suggesting that in some settings the difference between the two is virtually unobtrusive. This paper will highlight formative assessment processes in a Saudi public university. Besides, it will investigate the extent to which formative assessment proved formative in raising the standard of students' learning, and how it was dealt with differently from its summative counterpart. The findings of this study are based on a mixed method enquiry. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from English-major students of the university. A survey was distributed among 600 students; of whom 465 returned their responses. The numerical data were analysed using SPSS software for mean and standard deviation. In addition, eight individual and four focus-group interviews were conducted. For further triangulation of the data, eighteen lessons of five different teachers were observed. The qualitative data were analysed employing a qualitative data analysis (QDA). The results indicated that, practically, there was no observable difference between how the students studied for the two kinds of assessment and how these different modes of assessment impacted on their learning. In addition, the two types of assessment were found to be dealt with in a highly similar fashion. Students did not receive adequate feedback. Therefore, the study has clear implications for the institutional approach toward formative assessment. Likewise, this critical state of affairs necessitates a complete overhaul in teachers and students' beliefs concerning formative assessment.

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Formative Assessment of Language: an Essential Feature of Curriculum Design

Effective teachers evaluate and respond to students’ learning both in the moment and in a systematic, ongoing way. They make as-needed adjustments to their instruction and encourage students to reflect on their learning by providing timely and actionable feedback. This process is referred to as ‘formative assessment’.

Robert Stake, an evaluation researcher once said, “When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative; when the guests taste the soup, that’s summative” (quoted in Scriven, 1991).  In other words, rather than assessment of learning, formative assessment is assessment for learning and it is essential to the learning process.  

Because multilingual learners (MLL) have to learn new content and new language simultaneously, teachers need to assess and provide timely and actionable feedback on students’ language as well as their content knowledge. When teachers have the resources and knowledge to analyze student language and identify next steps in their language developement, they can refine instruction to help students pay attention to and engage actively in their own learning.

Effective materials are designed to include formative assessment that: 

• guides teachers to look for evidence of content and skills learning,
• plans for how to respond to learning needs with suggested scaffolds and modifications, 
• helps teachers to demonstrate how to share learning goals with students,
• helps students understand how their learning is progressing (metacognition), and what to do next to support their continued progress.  
• Examples include turn and talks, quick writes, student identification and correction of errors, gallery walks, etc.

These same formative assessment activities can also be used to understand language learning and guide teachers to collect samples of student language. Teachers can analyze the samples based on language targets related to the content  and support the next steps in students’ language development.  The language analyzed needs to occur naturally as part of the learning activities. This means students need opportunities to practice language in conversations and writing about content so they can make the language their own.  

All students, regardless of language background must be explicitly taught language in a way that builds on their current reading, writing, listening and speaking skills within the content area, but it is especially important for those learning in a new language.

For many teachers, learning to look for and respond to language evidence will mean a significant shift in instructional practice. This is why formative assessment of language and content must be designed into instructional materials. 

Designing for Effective Formative Assessment of Language

How can content developers approach design with a language lens? 

First, content developers must analyze what students need to DO with language (in addition to concepts and skills) as they proceed through tasks and lessons and create language goals and success criteria. Just as units are organized sequentially to build content area knowledge and skills, the lessons should build on students’ content area language so that they produce increasingly more precise language forms and functions . When content developers design materials with an initial analysis of language demands for each unit, then there are opportunities to build into the lessons, relevant and responsive scaffolds and supports that teachers can use to understand students’ knowledge, skills, and language use.

Formative Assessment in Unit Design 

Let me provide an example. In a middle school science unit on light and matter (spectroscopy), the unit goal may be for students to develop a model and explanation for how light interacts with an object’s material so that we see differently under different conditions. Each lesson has a goal and success criteria organized in a sequence that facilitates students’ eventual conceptual mastery and ability to demonstrate their understanding and apply it in a summative unit assessment. Students may need to analyze phenomena and describe that phenomena in writing and illustration, and make inferences about how that phenomena relates to other phenomena.

Some of the language demands of that unit might include:

• learning and using science terms (light waves, frequencies, reflect, refract, bend),
• developing the linguistic structures of analysis (inherent in science and engineering practices )
• describing their observations of light and matter, and
• making inference statements based on students’ observations.

Teachers should focus on those critical language features that students need to engage in reading, talking and writing about light and matter in science. Lessons should progress from providing opportunities for students to use their own language resources (including home language), to enhancing their language with more specialized science terminology and language and literacy patterns associated with the content and skills. The unit must build in many opportunities for students to see, use, and practice the specialized science language so that the words, phrases, patterns become part of their language repertoire.

There are many assessment tools and routines that can be built into and across the curriculum.  For example, guidance for collecting language observation notes with specific look fors or listen fors on each student’s performance in group work or presentations will help teachers notice patterns in language related to the goals of the lesson.  

In the science unit mentioned above, look fors / listen fors might guide teachers to notice and give feedback on the following:

• students’ word choices related to light and matter throughout the unit,
• words or phrases typically used in descriptions (e.g. for example, involves, can be defined, for instance).  
• features of descriptive text structure (e.g. main idea, unique features, supporting ideas, examples), and
• sentence structures typical in written analysis of phenomena. 

Guidance for collecting written work samples and using a language lens while assessing those samples will help teachers respond with language scaffolds, direct instruction, or other responsive teaching methods. Routines such as Stronger and Clearer or Collect and Display can allow for teacher, self and peer assessment.  

Teachers should not focus on teaching correct language use. Too much focus on correctness can inhibit MLL participation and confidence. As the linguist James Gee would say, we need to apprentice students to the Discourse community. Effective guidance helps teachers “apprentice” students by engaging them in activities that develop their language awareness and help them discover and learn how language is used within the content.

Formative assessment guidance is essential if teachers are to more effectively adapt and respond to what students are saying and doing as they develop content area language and content skills and knowledge simultaneously. Only through intentional design of materials, and support for effective implementation can language development be built into teachers’ instructional practice and students’ classroom experience. 

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Resources for Content Developers:

• This Fall, ELSF will hold its annual in-person content developer institute, Demystifying Curricular Design for Multilingual Learners .  Instructional materials’ designers and writers can expect to dive more deeply into how to design effective formative assessments of language and content. 
• ELSF recently updated our Do’s and Don’ts of Formative Assessment to make them supportive for content developers in designing curriculum. Download the PDF now.

Renae Skarin has almost 30 years of experience working with English learner and minoritized populations through research, advocacy, and program development and implementation with educators nationwide and abroad. She currently serves as the Senior Advisor for Content at the English Learners Success Forum (ELSF) where she leads its research efforts to identify strategies and develop resources for improving education policies and practices with regard to high quality instructional materials for multilingual learners. Before joining ELSF she served as an associate researcher at Understanding Language at Stanford University. She received her M.A. in Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and did Doctoral studies in Educational Linguistics at Stanford University.

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Language Teaching Strategies , Tips for Language Teachers

Language skills assessments: formative and summative assessment.

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In order to understand the progress that language learners are making, language educators should ensure that language skills assessments are a key part of their regular teaching programme. Although many people incorrectly assume that assessment only refers to taking a test, assessment is much broader than that and often takes place in the classroom without much fanfare.

This blog post looks at the two main types of language skills assessments in detail: summative assessment and formative assessment. We will explore how each type can contribute to an educator’s understanding of their students as well as providing some tips and tricks to help teachers maximise the effectiveness of the assessment they undertake.

What is summative assessment?

Summative assessment is described by Irons 2007 as “any assessment activity which results in a mark or grade which is subsequently used as judgment on student performance.” It is therefore usually used to summarise what a learner has achieved at the end of a period of time, relative to the learning aims and any relevant standards.

The period of time is, of course, dependent on what the teacher wants to find out. The summative assessment could therefore occur at the end of a topic, at the end of a term or at the end of a year. The format of the summative assessment is also determined by the educator – it could be a written test, a reading observation, a conversation with a native language speaker or a collaborative group task. As such, in the context of language teaching, the output of the summative assessment should be recorded in an appropriate format, whether that’s a written response or an audio recording.

Whatever format is used, the assessment will show what the student has learnt at/by a particular point in time. This can then provide individual and group data that is used to track progress and inform stakeholders (e.g. students, senior leaders, parents etc.).

However, because summative assessment only serves to reflect what a student has learned in the past (Ahmed, Ali & Ali Shah, 2019), it does present some drawbacks for the student. As Myers 2019 states the most significant issue is that very little is usually done to help learners to address the deficiencies identified in the summative assessment. The class simply marches onto the next topic and the gaps in student achievement continue to broaden.

Furthermore, this assessment format is also frequently characterised as relying on grades and scores. It often does not provide a complete picture of the student’s level of knowledge beyond that demonstrated in the assessment.

What is formative assessment?

The second major type of assessment type is known as formative assessment. This was defined by Irons in 2008 as: “Any task or activity which creates feedback (or ‘feedforward’) for students about their learning. Formative assessment does not carry a grade which is subsequently used in summative judgment”. Ahmed, Ali and Ali Shah (2019) take this a step further by arguing that formative assessment does not only support students, it also “informs teachers about how to adjust their teachings, appropriately.”

As such, formative assessment usually takes place at the same time as the teaching is being delivered. Conducting assessments on an ongoing basis allows learners and educators to assess progress more frequently. Teachers are then better able to see what concepts or skills have been mastered, or not, and can then restructure their content / lessons accordingly.

A formative assessment may actually look very similar to the summative assessment outlined above – they might even be a formal test. The difference is that the results are not always recorded or shared with others. They’re simply used to highlight areas that require further work, which is then incorporated into future lessons and activities.

However, formative assessments do also have drawbacks.They may act to demotivate those learners who grasp concepts more quickly and who have to sit through repeated teaching on the same topics. Myers 2019 also expresses concern that formative assessment can be incredibly time consuming for teachers and can lead to increased workload and unnecessary stress.

How do these language skills assessment types work together?

Of course, it is possible for the two forms of assessment to work powerfully together and language educators should ideally seek to balance both forms of assessment throughout their language courses. At the very simplest level, the use of summative assessment techniques ensures that students take their studies seriously and do not use continuous assessment as an excuse to slack off. Furthermore, the results from summative assessments can (and should!) be used formatively by both students and educators to guide their efforts and activities in subsequent courses.

It is also possible for educators to design formative assessments so that they scaffold learning (and assessment) and contribute to an overall summative task. This lowers the workload on the students and provides them with necessary feedback to improve their final performance. Conversely, summative assessments can also be completed and complemented with outputs /  resources that enable teachers to use the results to inform future teaching and learning – they therefore deliver a clear formative benefit.

Tips to implement an effective language learning assessment system in your classroom

• As always, the better you know your students and their preferred learning styles, the more accurate and effective your assessments will be. To that end, talk to them and trial the different assessment approaches individually, and in combination, to work out what’s most effective for your setting and classes.
• In either instance, take the time to explain the rationale behind your choice of assessment model clearly to students. It can also be worth emphasising the need for regular assessment and the benefits that it brings to them as learners – it’s not just testing for testing sake after all! And always be open with students about your evaluation, rubrics, and mark schemes. They should be completely clear about what you’re looking for and how every assessment will be marked.
• Bear in mind the Swedish and Norwegian word “ lagom ”, when planning your assessments. It means “just the right amount” and a balanced approach will certainly be welcomed by your students. Try to use a variety of different activities, tests and outputs to engage all students. Similarly aim to avoid having one single massive summative assessment that carries a disproportionate amount of weight in students’ final grade. No one needs the extra stress in their lives!
• Whatever assessment approach you follow, do try and mark it promptly. Otherwise students will have forgotten their answers and will have already moved on to the next topic in the curriculum. On that point, make sure to keep a record of student grades and always provide an opportunity to go through the assessment with students to address any gaps in understanding before moving on.
• Linked to the above, try to emphasise the positive elements of their performance rather than highlighting what they got wrong. Where possible, always encourage and motivate them to do even better next time.
• And finally, explore how concepts of peer evaluation and self-assessment could be used in your classroom. In peer evaluation, students are asked to review each other’s work and to identify areas for further development and focus. In the latter, students are encouraged to critically review their own work, to consider how they could improve and what gaps in their knowledge need to be addressed.

Whatever assessment approach you use to measure your students’ knowledge, Sanako’s market-leading tools include a wealth of unique features that help language educators teach languages more efficiently and more successfully. It’s why the world’s leading educational institutions choose Sanako as their preferred supplier to support online and in-person language lesson delivery.

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Using Formative Assessment to Measure Student Progress

Teachers can use the feedback they gain from assessing to drive instructional outcomes and help students understand what success looks like.

Perhaps my favorite commentary on formative assessment is this analogy offered by education professor Dylan Wiliam : “I flew back from Seattle a few weeks ago. Just imagine what the pilot would have done if he would have flown east for nine hours and then after nine hours he’d say, ‘It’s time to land.’ So he’ll put the plane down and he’ll ask, ‘Is this London?’ And of course, even if it’s not London, he says, ‘Well, everybody’s gotta get off, because I have to get off to the next journey.’ And that’s exactly the way that we’ve assessed in the past.” 

Formative assessment, implemented correctly, is a continuous measure of student success throughout any unit of study. When we provide students with quick, real-time information about their progress, they gain valuable knowledge that transcends any grade. 

Ensure that grades accurately measure student performance 

Although many teachers would love to abandon grades from an ideological perspective, that is not usually possible given school or district constraints. When thinking about grading, teachers can become mired in details that distract from the overall purpose of formative assessment. For example, some education experts argue that assessments cannot be formative if any data is recorded in the grade book.

By placing too much emphasis on grades over performance, however, this perspective overlooks the most important benefits that formative assessment produces: the delivery of “no secrets” instruction that is aligned to transparent and equitable feedback . To that end, formative assessments can be graded, but with two provisos: 

• Any formative grade should not be weighted heavily enough to have a significant impact on overall success, and students must also have the opportunity to reassess their work and make improvements. Otherwise, the grade is summative, not formative.
• Formative grades must be a true reflection of student success toward a goal. If they are arbitrary or placed in the grade book for completion, the entire formative process is compromised. 

In essence, formative assessment supports the idea that process is more important than product; therefore, the ultimate goal is centered on learning, not a grade. Any grade that either is given as a formality or is not grounded in criteria for success cannot be formative.

Understand the purpose of formative assessment

As education writer Stephen Chappuis explains, formative assessment is designed to deliver information about student progress during instruction. Thinking back to Dylan Wiliam’s comparison of the assessment process to a flight plan, consider the difference between a classroom in which there is little to no transparency and one in which “no secrets” learning outcomes are clear to all. In Classroom A, students read a short article about why exercise is important. The teacher explains that their task is to read silently and then fill out short-answer responses to the questions.

After class, the teacher collects their work, checks that students have answered the questions, and enters a grade in the “completion” category. While the teacher may feel that she has done something to help students make progress, she has only provided an activity that is devoid of any opportunity for assessment. Therefore, she has no way of determining whether students reached a learning goal that was never explicitly communicated to them.

In Classroom B, the teacher has the same content and curricular focus, but her process is different as she begins by explicitly sharing the desired learning outcome: “Today, we will examine the reasons that exercise is considered beneficial.” To begin, students sit in groups to read an assigned section of the article about the importance of exercise. Then, using a jigsaw-style method , students move into different groups so that each member can teach the rest of their classmates about what they learned in their assigned portion. At the end of the class, students complete an exit ticket with the following prompts:

• Share the reasons listed in the article that exercise is important, writing a brief explanation for each reason (one or two sentences).
• Of the reasons given in the article about the importance of exercise, which one do you most agree with, and why? Fully explain your answer.

The teacher in Classroom B can determine, based on the answers on the exit ticket, how fully students understood the objective of the day and develop next steps that accurately reflect progress toward learning outcomes.

Clearly, the teacher in Classroom B is engaging in formative assessment that provides insight into where her students are in terms of their learning. When instruction is planned with the outcome at the forefront of focus, formative data is far more likely to reflect accurate measures of success. However, when students complete tasks for a grade that does not connect to any kind of specific target, there is no way to determine where they stand in relation to the goal.

Remember that feedback, not grades, should drive instruction

Teachers often call grades “feedback,” but the truth is that an evaluative measure like a numerical score does not tell students that much about their progress toward a skill or standard, nor does a letter grade. However, effective feedback protocols based on clear, student-friendly criteria demystify how success on any given assignment is defined. 

Going back to the kids in Classroom B who are learning about the importance of exercise, imagine that their formative assessment (in this case, an exit ticket) includes the following criteria for success:

• You have accurately summarized the ideas in the article about the importance of exercise.
• Your response fully answers both questions in complete sentences.
• You have provided details that help to explain what reasons for exercise are the most meaningful to you.

If students have this list before they complete the formative assessment, they fully understand what a successful product should incorporate. Then, the teacher can point out where they are not yet seeing success in the feedback with comments like “You have not yet mentioned your own reasons that exercise is important, which is a necessary step in showing that you can apply the concepts in this article to your own experience.” 

With a process like the one above, the formative assessment is easily streamlined, as the teacher directly indicates which criteria have been met and which need improvement. For example, sorting students into categories of “meets” and “not yet” provides a helpful snapshot of where the class generally stands with reaching academic goals.

Ultimately, the goal of formative assessment is for teachers to clearly indicate a leaning target so that students can accurately attribute their academic performance to clear criteria for success with aligned, streamlined feedback. This helps us meet our true goal: helping kids understand what makes them successful so they can continue to grow and thrive.

What about your thoughts on the role of grades in formative assessment—do you use them? Why or why not? Answer in the comments.

Created by the Great Schools Partnership , the GLOSSARY OF EDUCATION REFORM is a comprehensive online resource that describes widely used school-improvement terms, concepts, and strategies for journalists, parents, and community members. | Learn more »

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support .

The general goal of formative assessment is to collect detailed information that can be used to improve instruction and student learning while it’s happening . What makes an assessment “formative” is not the design of a test, technique, or self-evaluation, per se, but the way it is used—i.e., to inform in-process teaching and learning modifications.

Formative assessments are commonly contrasted with summative assessments , which are used to evaluate student learning progress and achievement at the conclusion of a specific instructional period—usually at the end of a project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year. In other words, formative assessments are for learning, while summative assessments are of learning. Or as assessment expert Paul Black put it, “When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative assessment. When the customer tastes the soup, that’s summative assessment.” It should be noted, however, that the distinction between formative and summative is often fuzzy in practice, and educators may hold divergent interpretations of and opinions on the subject.

Many educators and experts believe that formative assessment is an integral part of effective teaching. In contrast with most summative assessments, which are deliberately set apart from instruction, formative assessments are integrated into the teaching and learning process. For example, a formative-assessment technique could be as simple as a teacher asking students to raise their hands if they feel they have understood a newly introduced concept, or it could be as sophisticated as having students complete a self-assessment of their own writing (typically using a rubric outlining the criteria) that the teacher then reviews and comments on. While formative assessments help teachers identify learning needs and problems, in many cases the assessments also help students develop a stronger understanding of their own academic strengths and weaknesses. When students know what they do well and what they need to work harder on, it can help them take greater responsibility over their own learning and academic progress.

While the same assessment technique or process could, in theory, be used for either formative or summative purposes, many summative assessments are unsuitable for formative purposes because they do not provide useful feedback. For example, standardized-test scores may not be available to teachers for months after their students take the test (so the results cannot be used to modify lessons or teaching and better prepare students), or the assessments may not be specific or fine-grained enough to give teachers and students the detailed information they need to improve.

The following are a few representative examples of formative assessments:

• Questions that teachers pose to individual students and groups of students during the learning process to determine what specific concepts or skills they may be having trouble with. A wide variety of intentional questioning strategies may be employed, such as phrasing questions in specific ways to elicit more useful responses.
• Specific, detailed, and constructive feedback that teachers provide on student work , such as journal entries, essays, worksheets, research papers, projects, ungraded quizzes, lab results, or works of art, design, and performance. The feedback may be used to revise or improve a work product, for example.
• “Exit slips” or “exit tickets” that quickly collect student responses to a teacher’s questions at the end of a lesson or class period. Based on what the responses indicate, the teacher can then modify the next lesson to address concepts that students have failed to comprehend or skills they may be struggling with. “Admit slips” are a similar strategy used at the beginning of a class or lesson to determine what students have retained from previous learning experiences .
• Self-assessments that ask students to think about their own learning process, to reflect on what they do well or struggle with, and to articulate what they have learned or still need to learn to meet course expectations or learning standards.
• Peer assessments that allow students to use one another as learning resources. For example, “workshopping” a piece of writing with classmates is one common form of peer assessment, particularly if students follow a rubric or guidelines provided by a teacher.

In addition to the reasons addressed above, educators may also use formative assessment to:

• Refocus students on the learning process and its intrinsic value, rather than on grades or extrinsic rewards.
• Encourage students to build on their strengths rather than fixate or dwell on their deficits. (For a related discussion, see growth mindset .)
• Help students become more aware of their learning needs, strengths, and interests so they can take greater responsibility over their own educational growth. For example, students may learn how to self-assess their own progress and self-regulate their behaviors.
• Give students more detailed, precise, and useful information. Because grades and test scores only provide a general impression of academic achievement, usually at the completion of an instructional period, formative feedback can help to clarify and calibrate learning expectations for both students and parents. Students gain a clearer understanding of what is expected of them, and parents have more detailed information they can use to more effectively support their child’s education.
• Raise or accelerate the educational achievement of all students, while also reducing learning gaps and achievement gaps .

While the formative-assessment concept has only existed since the 1960s, educators have arguably been using “formative assessments” in various forms since the invention of teaching. As an intentional school-improvement strategy, however, formative assessment has received growing attention from educators and researchers in recent decades. In fact, it is now widely considered to be one of the more effective instructional strategies used by teachers, and there is a growing body of literature and academic research on the topic.

Schools are now more likely to encourage or require teachers to use formative-assessment strategies in the classroom, and there are a growing number of professional-development opportunities available to educators on the subject. Formative assessments are also integral components of personalized learning and other educational strategies designed to tailor lessons and instruction to the distinct learning needs and interests of individual students.

While there is relatively little disagreement in the education community about the utility of formative assessment, debates or disagreements may stem from differing interpretations of the term. For example, some educators believe the term is loosely applied to forms of assessment that are not “truly” formative, while others believe that formative assessment is rarely used appropriately or effectively in the classroom.

Another common debate is whether formative assessments can or should be graded. Many educators contend that formative assessments can only be considered truly formative when they are ungraded and used exclusively to improve student learning. If grades are assigned to a quiz, test, project, or other work product, the reasoning goes, they become de facto summative assessments—i.e., the act of assigning a grade turns the assessment into a performance evaluation that is documented in a student’s academic record, as opposed to a diagnostic strategy used to improve student understanding and preparation before they are given a graded test or assignment.

Some educators also make a distinction between “pure” formative assessments—those that are used on a daily basis by teachers while they are instructing students—and “interim” or “benchmark” assessments, which are typically periodic or quarterly assessments used to determine where students are in their learning progress or whether they are on track to meeting expected learning standards. While some educators may argue that any assessment method that is used diagnostically could be considered formative, including interim assessments, others contend that these two forms of assessment should remain distinct, given that different strategies, techniques, and professional development may be required.

Some proponents of formative assessment also suspect that testing companies mislabel and market some interim standardized tests as “formative” to capitalize on and profit from the popularity of the idea. Some observers express skepticism that commercial or prepackaged products can be authentically formative, arguing that formative assessment is a sophisticated instructional technique, and to do it well requires both a first-hand understanding of the students being assessed and sufficient training and professional development.

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14 Examples of Formative Assessment [+FAQs]

Traditional student assessment typically comes in the form of a test, pop quiz, or more thorough final exam. But as many teachers will tell you, these rarely tell the whole story or accurately determine just how well a student has learned a concept or lesson.

That’s why many teachers are utilizing formative assessments. While formative assessment is not necessarily a new tool, it is becoming increasingly popular amongst K-12 educators across all subject levels. 

Curious? Read on to learn more about types of formative assessment and where you can access additional resources to help you incorporate this new evaluation style into your classroom.

What is Formative Assessment?

Online education glossary EdGlossary defines formative assessment as “a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course.” They continue, “formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support.”

The primary reason educators utilize formative assessment, and its primary goal, is to measure a student’s understanding while instruction is happening. Formative assessments allow teachers to collect lots of information about a student’s comprehension while they’re learning, which in turn allows them to make adjustments and improvements in the moment. And, the results speak for themselves — formative assessment has been proven to be highly effective in raising the level of student attainment, increasing equity of student outcomes, and improving students’ ability to learn, according to a study from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 

On the flipside of the assessment coin is summative assessments, which are what we typically use to evaluate student learning. Summative assessments are used after a specific instructional period, such as at the end of a unit, course, semester, or even school year. As learning and formative assessment expert Paul Black puts it, “when the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative assessment. When a customer tastes the soup, that’s summative assessment.”

14 Examples of Formative Assessment Tools & Strategies

There are many types of formative assessment tools and strategies available to teachers, and it’s even possible to come up with your own. However, here are some of the most popular and useful formative assessments being used today.

• Round Robin Charts

Students break out into small groups and are given a blank chart and writing utensils. In these groups, everyone answers an open-ended question about the current lesson. Beyond the question, students can also add any relevant knowledge they have about the topic to their chart. These charts then rotate from group to group, with each group adding their input. Once everyone has written on every chart, the class regroups and discusses the responses. 

• Strategic Questioning

This formative assessment style is quite flexible and can be used in many different settings. You can ask individuals, groups, or the whole class high-level, open-ended questions that start with “why” or “how.” These questions have a two-fold purpose — to gauge how well students are grasping the lesson at hand and to spark a discussion about the topic. 

• Three-Way Summaries

These written summaries of a lesson or subject ask students to complete three separate write-ups of varying lengths: short (10-15 words), medium (30-50 words), and long (75-100). These different lengths test students’ ability to condense everything they’ve learned into a concise statement, or elaborate with more detail. This will demonstrate to you, the teacher, just how much they have learned, and it will also identify any learning gaps. 

• Think-Pair-Share

Think-pair-share asks students to write down their answers to a question posed by the teacher. When they’re done, they break off into pairs and share their answers and discuss. You can then move around the room, dropping in on discussions and getting an idea of how well students are understanding.

• 3-2-1 Countdown

This formative assessment tool can be written or oral and asks students to respond to three very simple prompts: Name three things you didn’t know before, name two things that surprised you about this topic, and name one you want to start doing with what you’ve learned. The exact questions are flexible and can be tailored to whatever unit or lesson you are teaching.

• Classroom Polls

This is a great participation tool to use mid-lesson. At any point, pose a poll question to students and ask them to respond by raising their hand. If you have the capability, you can also use online polling platforms and let students submit their answers on their Chromebooks, tablets, or other devices.

• Exit/Admission Tickets

Exit and admission tickets are quick written exercises that assess a student’s comprehension of a single day’s lesson. As the name suggests, exit tickets are short written summaries of what students learned in class that day, while admission tickets can be performed as short homework assignments that are handed in as students arrive to class.

• One-Minute Papers

This quick, formative assessment tool is most useful at the end of the day to get a complete picture of the classes’ learning that day. Put one minute on the clock and pose a question to students about the primary subject for the day. Typical questions might be:

• What was the main point?
• What questions do you still have?
• What was the most surprising thing you learned?
• What was the most confusing aspect and why?
• Creative Extension Projects

These types of assessments are likely already part of your evaluation strategy and include projects like posters and collage, skit performances, dioramas, keynote presentations, and more. Formative assessments like these allow students to use more creative parts of their skillset to demonstrate their understanding and comprehension and can be an opportunity for individual or group work.

Dipsticks — named after the quick and easy tool we use to check our car’s oil levels — refer to a number of fast, formative assessment tools. These are most effective immediately after giving students feedback and allowing them to practice said skills. Many of the assessments on this list fall into the dipstick categories, but additional options include writing a letter explaining the concepts covered or drawing a sketch to visually represent the topic. 

• Quiz-Like Games and Polls

A majority of students enjoy games of some kind, and incorporating games that test a student’s recall and subject aptitude are a great way to make formative assessment more fun. These could be Jeopardy-like games that you can tailor around a specific topic, or even an online platform that leverages your own lessons. But no matter what game you choose, these are often a big hit with students.

• Interview-Based Assessments

Interview-based assessments are a great way to get first-hand insight into student comprehension of a subject. You can break out into one-on-one sessions with students, or allow them to conduct interviews in small groups. These should be quick, casual conversations that go over the biggest takeaways from your lesson. If you want to provide structure to student conversations, let them try the TAG feedback method — tell your peer something they did well, ask a thoughtful question, and give a positive suggestion.

• Self Assessment

Allow students to take the rubric you use to perform a self assessment of their knowledge or understanding of a topic. Not only will it allow them to reflect on their own work, but it will also very clearly demonstrate the gaps they need filled in. Self assessments should also allow students to highlight where they feel their strengths are so the feedback isn’t entirely negative.

• Participation Cards

Participation cards are a great tool you can use on-the-fly in the middle of a lesson to get a quick read on the entire classes’ level of understanding. Give each student three participation cards — “I agree,” “I disagree,” and “I don’t know how to respond” — and pose questions that they can then respond to with those cards. This will give you a quick gauge of what concepts need more coverage.

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List of Formative Assessment Resources

There are many, many online formative assessment resources available to teachers. Here are just a few of the most widely-used and highly recommended formative assessment sites available.

• Arizona State Dept of Education

FAQs About Formative Assessment

The following frequently asked questions were sourced from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), a leading education professional organization of more than 100,000 superintendents, principals, teachers, and advocates.  

Is formative assessment something new?

No and yes. The concept of measuring a student’s comprehension during lessons has existed for centuries. However, the concept of formative assessment as we understand it didn’t appear until approximately 40 years ago, and has progressively expanded into what it is today.

What makes something a formative assessment?

ASCD characterized formative assessment as “a way for teachers and students to gather evidence of learning, engage students in assessment, and use data to improve teaching and learning.” Their definition continues, “when you use an assessment instrument— a test, a quiz, an essay, or any other kind of classroom activity—analytically and diagnostically to measure the process of learning and then, in turn, to inform yourself or your students of progress and guide further learning, you are engaging in formative assessment. If you were to use the same instrument for the sole purpose of gathering data to report to a district or state or to determine a final grade, you would be engaging in summative assessment.”

Does formative assessment work in all content areas?

Absolutely, and it works across all grade levels. Nearly any content area — language arts, math, science, humanities, and even the arts or physical education — can utilize formative assessment in a positive way.

How can formative assessment support the curriculum?

Formative assessment supports curricula by providing real-time feedback on students’ knowledge levels and comprehension of the subject at hand. When teachers regularly utilize formative assessment tools, they can find gaps in student learning and customize lessons to fill those gaps. After term is over, teachers can use this feedback to reshape their curricula.

How can formative assessment be used to establish instructional priorities?

Because formative assessment supports curriculum development and updates, it thereby influences instructional priorities. Through student feedback and formative assessment, teachers are able to gather data about which instructional methods are most (and least) successful. This “data-driven” instruction should yield more positive learning outcomes for students.

Can formative assessment close achievement gaps?

Formative assessment is ideal because it identifies gaps in student knowledge while they’re learning. This allows teachers to make adjustments to close these gaps and help students more successfully master a new skill or topic.

How can I help my students understand formative assessment?

Formative assessment should be framed as a supportive learning tool; it’s a very different tactic than summative assessment strategies. To help students understand this new evaluation style, make sure you utilize it from the first day in the classroom. Introduce a small number of strategies and use them repeatedly so students become familiar with them. Eventually, these formative assessments will become second nature to teachers and students.

Before you tackle formative assessment, or any new teaching strategy for that matter, consider taking a continuing education course. At the University of San Diego School of Professional and Continuing Education, we offer over 500 courses for educators that can be completed entirely online, and many at your own pace. So no matter what your interests are, you can surely find a course — or even a certificate — that suits your needs.

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Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is a process that involves the ongoing use of information about students’ knowledge, understanding and skills to target teaching and address student learning needs. Formative assessment provides teachers and students with opportunities for feedback throughout teaching and learning and provides evidence about progress to inform the next steps in learning.

All assessment can be used in a formative way by teachers and/or students. Assessment becomes formative when information about student learning is used to adapt teaching to meet student learning needs and when students are provided with timely feedback and opportunities to improve.

Teachers can use formative assessment to identify what students know and can do before new content is taught. Through formative assessment, progress can be monitored over time and students can become active participants in the learning process. Formative assessment can help both teachers and students to develop a greater awareness of learning through goal setting, monitoring the learning progress and adapting goals for future learning.

The purpose of formative assessment is to:

• inform teaching and learning to meet student learning needs
• identify misunderstandings and skills not yet mastered to guide teacher action
• focus on learning processes to inform next steps for teacher and student
• provide students with opportunities to improve
• reflect on the learning process and set learning goals.

Formative assessment includes:

• identifying where student learning is going and what success looks like​​
• finding evidence of student learning in a variety of ways
• providing feedback that supports the student to progress in their learning
• providing opportunities for students to give feedback to one another on learning
• self-evaluating or making judgements in relation to goals and/or criteria.

Image long description: A diagram showing the Formative assessment process. Five circles are connected by arrows, showing that the process is circular and continuous. The top circle contains the text ‘Identifying where the learning is going and what success looks like’, with an arrow pointing to the next circle, which contains the text ‘Finding evidence of learning in a variety of ways’. An arrow points to a third circle which is surrounded by 3 double-sided arrows, with the text ‘Using feedback’. Around this circle there is text reading ‘Interpreting information’, ‘Providing and actioning feedback’ and ‘Evaluating feedback’. An arrow points to the next circle with the text ‘Determining next steps’. An arrow points to the next circle with the text ‘Adapting goals’. An arrow from the fifth circle points to the first circle.

This model emphasises the importance of feedback in decisions that teachers and students make about progress, and the next steps in teaching and learning. The process involves:

• identifying where the learning is going, what is being learnt, why and how it will be learnt, and providing clear expectations for success
• finding evidence of learning in a variety of ways to understand where student learning is at that point in time
• determining how information about learning will be interpreted, what feedback will be provided and when, how the feedback will be actioned, and the process for evaluation
• deciding how the information will be used to move the learning forward and determining next steps in teaching and learning
• adapting teacher and student goals by reflecting on the learning process.

Formative assessment approaches

Teachers and students may use a range of approaches to engage in the process of formative assessment. The following examples outline some of these approaches.

Teacher observations

Teacher observations can provide information about student progress and achievement in relation to the syllabus. Observations can occur informally during teaching and learning, or formally, where specific learning requires teacher observation of student knowledge and/or skill.

Assessment experiences may include:

• student participation in practical activities
• student application of skills to demonstrate understanding of key concepts
• student application of learning in familiar and unfamiliar contexts
• teacher questioning to observe individual level of understanding
• teacher–student discussions or conferences.

Teacher observation can be used to interpret information about student progress in relation to:

• knowledge of key concepts
• application of knowledge and understanding to new contexts and situations
• development and application of skills
• communication, collaboration and critical and creative thinking.

Peer assessment and self-assessment

Peer assessment and self-assessment can provide students and teachers with information to inform goal setting and reflect on learning. For peer assessment and self-assessment to be effective and meaningful, students need to be explicitly shown how to assess their own work and the work of others. Formally, students may use criteria to make decisions about their own progress and to provide feedback on the progress of others. Informally, students may use prompts to ask questions about the quality of their own work and the work of others. Using peer assessment and self-assessment enables students to take a more active role in their learning. It encourages them to reflect on where they are in their learning, identify the next steps needed to make progress and monitor their progress over time.

Peer assessment

Peer assessment involves students assessing each other's work in relation to specific goals or criteria. Students provide feedback to one another and respond to this feedback to improve their learning. Teachers should model how to assess learning and use appropriate language to clarify expectations for assessment that incorporates peer feedback. Feedback may take a variety of forms and should provide opportunities for students to develop their social, collaborative and reflective skills.

Students may provide feedback to their peers about:

• what has been completed
• strengths and/or aspects that have been completed well
• suggestions for how to improve with reference to specific learning goals and/or criteria
• alternative strategies to refine learning.

Self-assessment

Self-assessment involves students assessing their own learning in relation to personal learning goals to identify what they know, the direction they need to take and how they are going to get there. This can provide both teachers and students with information to support future teaching and learning.

Self-assessment questions may include:

• What do I already know about this learning area?
• What will help me achieve this learning goal and why is it important?
• How will I know when I achieve my learning goals?
• How can I use criteria to improve?
• What do I notice when I compare my work to exemplars and/or the work of others?
• How can I use feedback to improve?
• What strategies can I use when I find myself being challenged?
• How has my learning improved through collaborating with others?

Prompts for students may include:

• Things I have learnt are …
• I need to work on …
• I collaborated by …
• Next time I will ...
• I will use my new skills to ...
• I will use my knowledge to ...
• My strength today was …
• My biggest improvement is …
• I would like to learn more about …

Self-assessment experiences may include:

• reflections on learning processes
• creating portfolios of work
• self-assessment of progress in relation to the syllabus
• evaluating own contributions to a group task
• reassessing learning goals based on feedback.

Collaboration

Collaborative activities enable teachers to assess learning that occurs as a result of interaction between students. Students interact through common or related activities, often using modelled, guided and independent approaches to learning. Collaboration can occur using a variety of tools and in face-to-face and digital modes. For effective collaboration, the group should have a clear understanding of the purpose and goals.

Collaborative assessment experiences may include:

• group discussions to evaluate and challenge views
• team-based investigations, including the allocation of specific roles and responsibilities
• group-prepared presentations
• group-based problem-solving in authentic contexts.

When collaborative activities are used for assessment purposes, evidence can be gathered about students’ ability to:

• work together in structured teams
• solve problems and make decisions with others
• demonstrate skills in applying knowledge
• take individual and/or shared responsibility for learning during group work
• think critically and creatively, and offer constructive feedback
• analyse, evaluate and synthesise information.

Worked examples

Worked examples are demonstrations of one or more skills, modelled by the teacher, that can help students to know and recognise the standards for which they are aiming. Worked examples can support assessment by allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills with greater confidence as they know what is required of them. Worked examples can be used to explain the steps required to achieve learning goals, solve problems and support skill acquisition. Presenting students with worked examples or creating worked examples with students can reduce the cognitive load often associated with new learning.

• engaging with annotated exemplars of learning to deepen knowledge, understanding and skills, and/or an understanding of achievement standards
• teacher-and-student joint construction of learning through collaborative discussion and modelling in a range of modes
• collaboratively annotating and/or discussing exemplars of work using criteria.

When worked examples are used for assessment purposes, evidence can be gathered about students’ ability to:

• demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills throughout the learning process
• communicate understanding of their own work in relation to the worked example and/or success criteria
• apply a deeper understanding of criteria to their own learning
• transfer knowledge and understanding by using worked examples as models or scaffolds for their own work
• respond to and use explicit instruction and feedback to improve their understanding and skills
• understand where they need to take their learning next and set future learning goals.