Compare Formative And Summative Forms Of Assessment

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

"We have not fundamentally restructured the way our schools function. We need to stop, take a step back, and ask ourselves some hard questions about the tenets that define our work today. We need to rethink some basic assumptions about the use of time, the structure of the school day, and how we organize our students in their learning environment." (Arne Duncan, US Secretary of Education)

The big picture today is the curriculum redesign or redesign and the right to learn for every child, being one of many concerns of most countries such as the No Children Left Behind (NCLB). Children of the 21st century need to be given adequate knowledge, skills and character as a way of adaption to mass and evolutionary information. Adapting to 21st century needs means revisiting each dimension and the interplay between them.

Compare formative and summative forms of assessment.

Assessment has the power to transform both learning and teaching because it is so inherently linked to motivation and learning. In all education systems, it is assessment that dominates curriculum. Assessment can be divided into two major categories: formative and summative.

Summative assessments are well known in education today. Essays, chapter tests, midterm exams, and final exams are all examples of summative assessments. Summative assessments are administered after learning opportunities and the point of summative assessments is to show teachers and other adults how much students learned.

Formative assessments, on the other hand, are less commonly used in their most powerful form. Formative assessments are administered continuously during learning opportunities. That is to say that after a formative assessment there are still opportunities to learn and improve in order to reach a learning goal. The formative assessment is a guide letting students and teachers know how close students are to their learning goals and what the next step should be in helping students reach them.

The main distinction, between these two forms of assessment is that, summative assessment is "assessment of learning" and formative assessment is "assessment for learning". Assessment of learning is assessment for the purposes of providing evidence of achievement for reporting. Primary users of Assessment of Learning are Policy Makers, Program Planners and Supervisors. The teacher’s role in assessment of learning is to follow test and administration procedures and to use those results to help student reach their aim at the end. Assessment of learning occurs at the end of year or at key stages.

Assessment of learning is summative and involves determining the quality of the learning that has taken place at the end of a unit or theme, term, semester, or school year. It is the teacher who carries out this assessment and may be either criterion-referenced (based on prescribed learning outcomes) or norm-referenced (comparing student achievement to that of others).

With the use of summative assessment the information on student performance can be shared with parents/guardians, school and district staff, and other education professionals (e.g., for the purposes of curriculum development). These performance outcomes can be used to make judgments about students’ performance in relation to the standards and to measure students’ achievement at a point in time for reporting and accountability. Specific learning outcomes and standards are reference points, and grade levels may be the benchmarks for reporting.

On the contrary, assessment for learning is used for continuing planning for the purposes of greater learning achievement. In an assessment for learning environment, rather than something that happens at the end of the learning, assessment is used to support and inform learning, build self-confidence, and capacity for success (Stiggins, 2001).

Assessment for learning is on-going, and requires deep involvement on the part of the learner in clarifying outcomes, monitoring on-going learning, collecting evidence and presenting evidence of learning to others. The teachers’ role is to inform students of targets, modify instruction and involve students in assessment. The purpose is to promote further improvement of student learning during the learning process and to involve students in the ongoing assessment of their own achievement.

Assessment for learning is diagnostic and formative. It can be the teacher’s assessment, student self-assessment, and/or student peer assessment. Formative assessment is based on criterion-referenced, that is criteria based on prescribed learning outcomes identified in the official curriculum, reflecting performance in relation to a specific learning task. It involves both teacher and student in a process of continual reflection and review about progress.

Teachers adjust their plans and engage in corrective teaching in response to formative assessment. Formative assessment can help both the teacher and pupils in reviewing and reflecting on pupils' performance and progress. Pupils learning self-assessment techniques to discover areas they need to improve are very positive in concern with assessment for learning. Recognition that both motivation and self-esteem, crucial for effective learning and progress, can be increased by effective assessment techniques is well part of formative assessment.

Overall, Assessment for Learning is concerned with collecting evidence about learning that is used to adapt teaching and plan next steps in learning. Evidence about learning is crucial as it indicates if there has been a shift (or not) in a pupil’s learning progress and possibly learning processes. On the basis of such evidence, teachers can formulate aims and are able to provide pupils with feedback about their learning .The feedback provided during Assessment for Learning contributes to a pupils’ reflection on their own learning.

Hence, to conclude, the key difference between Assessment for Learning and Assessment of Learning can be identified as the purpose for which teachers and other professionals gather evidence of learning. Although some tools may be the same (e.g. questioning) the key issues emerging from the feedback provided indicated that it is necessary to keep in mind that Assessment for Learning aims at improving learning whereas Assessment of Learning aims at ensuring accountability (of schools and teachers). Therefore, Assessment for Learning explores the potential for learning and indicates the next step to be taken in order to promote learning and focuses upon the dynamics of teaching and learning and Assessment of Learning shows what has been already achieved, memorized and absorbed and provides a snapshot of the current situation.

Do curriculum affects the way we assess?

An all-important factor of a quality education is a quality curriculum, one that is accurate, enables students to excel and one which is easy for teachers to use. Therefore taking the question of how curriculum affects assessment as our starting point, we need to investigate what we mean by curriculum and by assessing, and how these interact.

We begin first with the question of what we mean by curriculum. The term curriculum comes from Latin which means to "run a course or a race" (Merriam-Webster) and refers to a sequence of steps or stages in teaching and learning specific content, as one can say a set of courses constituting an area of specialization. If we think of curriculum as a sequence of learning experiences, we immediately run into the difficulty that no one can consistently control the experiences of individual students. All that can be done is to provide students with opportunities to learn specific content and to use their native abilities to develop these into useful skills. One as a teacher should always remember that children differ in abilities and they will also differ in skill development. Thus, a good definition for curriculum is a sequence of learning opportunities provided to students in their study of specific content.

According to the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) (pg.224 para. 15.1.1), the prosperity of Mauritius is dependent, to a large extent, on its human capital. To prosper in a fast changing world, individuals need to develop a lifelong learning culture. It is up to our educational system to develop those skills into our learners. Assessment has a significant role to play in guaranteeing that these objectives are attained and it is vital to the educational process.

Developing of a curriculum would ideally encompass the simultaneous development of an assessment programme which fulfilled the intentions of the curriculum. In this way the curriculum and the assessment processes would empower each other and compensate one another in each one`s weakness. The experience in many countries has been that this duality has been lost, particularly when a major function for assessment procedures has been to measure teacher and school performance. Then conflict can arise between assessment to enhance learning and assessment for measuring achievement. It would appear therefore that assessment regimes have a powerful effect on school curricula.

The major analytical paper of Madaus (1988) on the influence of testing on the curriculum defined high stakes tests as those whose results are perceived by students, teachers, administrators, parents/care-givers or the general public as being used to make important decisions that immediately and directly affect them. High stakes tests can be norm- or criterion-referenced, internal or external in origin (which means that school assessments which may seem to be low stake can become high stake if they become enmeshed in important decisions about students and teachers).

Boud and Falchikov (2007) sustain the development of schemes of assessment tasks that progressively stimulate the development of students' abilities to make increasingly sophisticated judgments about their own learning. Such approaches to assessment place assessment as a crucial element in developing students' capacity to learn for the longer term. It provides a framework within which standards may be set for students’ achievement and progress. The NCF proposes a variety of methods and approaches that can be used for assessment. These methods will depend on the goals set for the programme and the subject that is being taught.

By determining what students have learned and what is unclear, we can focus the class more effectively to meet the learning needs of that group. This may mean reviewing some areas, or spending less time in other areas. Unlike summative evaluation which is typically given at the end of the semester, these techniques provide an on-going formative evaluation. The teacher can find out what can be changed immediately to help students to learn.

Assessment of and for students’ learning is the process of gathering and analyzing information as evidence about what students know, can do and understand. It is part of an ongoing cycle that includes planning, documenting and evaluating students’ learning. The NCF proposes two types of assessment to be carried out in schools. According to it, the inclusion of continuous assessment in our education system is a step forward to achieve this objective. Continuous assessment, which can be complementary to the end-of-year summative assessment, must help to reduce students’ anxiety about sitting for a high-stake exam at the end of the academic year which, on its own, may not reflect the aptitudes, skills and knowledge gained by the student throughout the year.(NCF Pg.229 para 15.5).

These two types of assessment are very crucial to the teaching and learning process and must be complementary. Summative assessments are used to measure what students have learnt at the end of a unit, to promote students, to ensure they have met required standards on the way to earning certification for school completion or to enter certain occupations, or as a method for selecting students for entry into further education. But assessment may also serve a formative function.

Formative and continuous assessment must be given more emphasis according to the NCF. In classrooms, formative assessment refers to frequent, interactive assessments of student progress and understanding to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately. Teachers using formative assessment approaches and techniques are better prepared to meet diverse students’ needs through differentiation and adaptation of teaching to raise levels of student achievement and to achieve a greater equity of student outcomes.

Each of the objectives under "Assessment for Learning" in the NCF promotes formative assessment as a means to meeting the goals of lifelong learning. Teachers using formative assessment approaches guide students toward development of their own "learning to learn" skills; skills that are increasingly necessary as knowledge is quickly outdated in the information society.

Moreover, the NCF states that the success of the assessment reforms depends on the teachers’ ability to bring about the concomitant changes in their practice. To empower them to achieve the desired targets, adequate emphasis must be laid on their training and continuous professional development. (NCF Pg.228 para 15.4)

Hence, the teacher should learn to bring about the affiliated changes in their practice throughout. To enable them to attain the desired aims, adequate emphasis must be laid on their training and continuous professional development. If teaching is limited, the quality of student assessment will also be limited. Teachers need a healthy repertoire of approaches to set up learning situations and respond to student learning needs. Formative assessment requires greater transparency in teaching and learning, and is also quite iterative. Effective teaching, learning and assessment centre on the quality of interactions between and among teachers and learners. High quality interactions involve a complex mix of skills in assessment, subject matter and pedagogical expertise, and softer skills such as patience, flexibility and empathy. Therefore, teachers will need opportunities for effective training and professional development, as well as the ongoing support of programme leaders and peer networks. As instructors develop their skills, they develop the capacity to think and act reflectively, hence diagnosing needs and developing appropriate responses.

However, the NCF infers that the main concern of the government and the aim of all reforms are to ensure that no child is left behind and therefore the inclusion of continuous assessment in our education system is a step forward to achieve this objective. It cannot be over-emphasised that the mode of assessment dictates the nature of the educational experience and the quality of the relationship between teacher and pupils. Assessment is not something separate, it is a tool by which education may be evaluated; it acts upon the educational system so as to shape it in accordance with what the assessment demands. Hence it is important for teachers to design proper assessment for improvement.