Meaningful Pedagogy: Evaluation of Learning Goals and Targets

The term ‘formative assessment’ is used to describe the activities and processes used by teachers and learners to gather information that informs future teaching and learning. Assessment becomes formative if the information gathered is used as feedback to adapt and modify teaching and learning (Black and Wiliam, 1998, p.2). There are a variety of different methods and techniques that can be used by teachers and learners that can contribute to enhancing learner progress. These include

Formative assessment, or assessment for learning as it is often called, is the assessment that

A formative assessment provides informal feedback and information during the teaching process. This assessment measures student progress and performance thus allowing further improvement and development. It can also assess the teacher’s progress as an instructor, enabling the teacher to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching methods.

Formative assessment is a more formal type of assessing where the focus is on monitoring pupils response to the lesson and any progress made.

Assessment is defined as any practice or task that is used to produce information about student learning, and is categorized as either formative or summative (Wallace & White, 2014). There is a distinct difference between the various types of assessments, specifically formative and summative. Formative assessments are informal quizzes that are used to guide instruction

There are characteristic differences between the two uses of assessment: • Summative comes at the end of learning episodes, whereas formative is built in to the learning process; • Summative aims to assess knowledge and understanding at a given point in time, whereas formative aims to develop it; • Summative is static and one-way (usually the teacher or examiner judges the pupil), whereas formative is on-going and dynamic (feedback can be given both to the pupil and the teacher); • Summative follows a set of pre-defined questions, whereas formative follows the flow of spontaneous dialogue and interaction, where one action builds on (is contingent upon) an earlier one. The term “assessment for learning” is often used interchangeably with “formative assessment”. In 1999, the Assessment Reform Group defined assessment for learning as “the process of seeking and interpreting

Formative assessment focuses on conducting how the student learns over time. Teachers test based on understanding and comprehending of the lesson such as; chapter tests or small quizzes. This third grade teacher uses review packets, chapter tests, bonus homework sheets, individual whiteboard sheets, and whole-class discussions. For example, if a child is learning about multiplication and has to apply the concept to a word problem, but has no concept in combing the lesson to solve the problem. This informs the teacher that the child doesn’t understand the lesson or needs to go back to change how it could be taught differently. These assessments shows the teacher whether the child understand the concept they are learning or whether the teacher needs to change her teaching. Summative assessment has a different goal towards the students’ learning at the end of a unit by comparing it against some benchmark score. This assessment focuses on the curriculum aspect on assessing the whole picture meaning the unit at the end of the lesson. The practicum teacher works on providing checklists, checking problems before moving on to the next problem, using hand signals, and writing in their math journals. Students enjoy using hand signals to answer the problem and use their individual white boards to personally solve the problem. There are a few benefits of using hand signals in the classroom. Incorporating these signals provide teachers a quick visual check on whether the students understand how to solve a problem and comprehend the problem. For example; using thumbs-up, hands on your

Types of formative assessment –Questioning asking questions to the students and allowing time for each student to explore their answers with the group, lessons become rich and students respond by appropriate group discussion and feed-back. This gives the teacher the opportunity to observe the students and assess their level of

Formative assessment-Teachers that collect evidence about what a student still needs to comprehend and adaptions that are made to meet the student’s needs.

Assessment for learning is any assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting further student learning and enabling improved student learning through purposeful interaction and providing meaningful feedback. Formative assessment is specifically intended to generate feedback and feed forward on performance to improve, accelerate and enable learning (Sadler, 1998). Formative assessment can and should occur throughout a daily class, through implementation of learning and teaching strategies that lead to both oral and written feedback. The Formative assessment approach is equitable and reliable, producing some significant indicator of student developed understanding that links directly to the syllabus outcomes. This then allows the teacher or other students to respond by trying to

As a part of the instructional process, a formative assessment is very important. It is generally incorporated into the basic practices of the classroom, and provides information that teachers can use in order to adjust the learning and teaching "in real time" (Adey, 2005; Leung, 2007; McClain & Cobb, 2001). In other words, teachers see what they need to do right away, because they are engaged in what the students are learning and how the students are responding to that learning. Because of that, formative assessments are good at helping both students and teachers stay informed about the understanding students are having regarding a particular lesson (Clarke, 2001). Because that information is provided so quickly, changes can be made if there are problems. Teachers do not have to wait until a test or other milestone indicates that there are issues with which the students are struggling, and that is very good news for the teachers and for the students who need help and support.

Recently, whenever I hear current teachers discussing about assessing students, ‘Formative Assessment’ is sure to be highlighted. Nowadays this method (formative assessment) is becoming popular among schools and is being applied widely in schools including my own school. Loughland and Kilpatrick (2015) identified in the few past decades, formative assessment has turned out to be the main goal for teachers and educational systems. On the foundation of Loughland and Kilpatrick (2015) findings and from my experience in the field of teaching, I found out nowadays teachers and school stakeholders strongly feel that formative assessment is the best method to assess in order to enhance students’ learning. For these evident reasons, I am interested in finding

Formative assessment takes place during learning and is aimed to help learning and teaching by giving appropriate feedback (Lewy, 1990). Nitko (1993) named two purposes of formative assessment: (a) selecting or modifying learning procedures, and (b) choose the best remedies for improving weak points in learning and teaching. Gattullo (2000) characterized formative assessment as “(a) it is an ongoing multi-phase process that is carried out on a daily basis through teacher–pupil interaction, (b) it provides feedback for immediate action, and (c) it aims at modifying teaching activities in order to improve learning processes and

Scriven introduced the concepts of formative assessment and summative assessment in 1967 to express the contrast in these methods of measuring progress in educational programs. The terms were first coined to address the performance of the entire educational program as a whole. Over the years, the term has been applied more directly to students and their performance. Bennett offers that defining the concept of formative assessment has gotten confused over the years. After the introduction of this term many years ago and its “reintroduction” in the United States, Bennett states that the testing industry has divided over its meaning and usage (6). He writes that one side of the coin, mainly testing professionals, believes that there should be multiple assessments given throughout a program to measure the progress of the student. These assessments would mainly happen at the very beginning to identify where the student is, somewhere in the middle of the program, and towards the end. The other side of the argument, comprised of mostly education professional, promotes “not so much a score as a qualitative insight into student understanding” (Bennett, 6). In other words, the other side has not supported multiple assessments where scores are given. Implementing formative assessment

Students may not take it as seriously as summative assessment. It can be a time taking process. Students need different kinds of formative assessment at different stages in their learning.[2]