The fidelity of formative assessment implementation: issues of breadth and quality

The paper examines the breadth and quality of formative assessment implementation of 202 mathematics and science teachers who participated in a two-year, school-based professional development programme that focused on formative assessment. Results are triangulated using three sources of data: baseline and end-of-Year 2 data from an annual survey, logs that were completed daily at six two-week time points and reflections on formative assessment techniques that the teachers wrote weekly during the log collection periods. The data indicate that while teachers made significant improvements in some areas, certain aspects of formative assessment are less emphasised and there are some patterns around quality of implementation that suggest more targeted professional development is warranted.     

Developing classroom formative assessment in dutch primary mathematics education

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

Teacher beliefs and the mediation of curriculum innovation in Scotland: A socio‐cultural perspective on professional development and change

The purpose of this study was to investigate socio‐cultural factors underpinning curriculum change by examining teacher beliefs in the context of professional development. Scottish teachers in the study were participating in policy implementation based on formative assessment. Teachers were selected who were positive about the formative assessment initiative, so as to examine the inter‐relationships amongst beliefs, policy, and practices when teachers intended to implement curriculum innovation. The aims of the study were to investigate: (a) the nature of teachers’ beliefs about teaching, learning, and the professional development programme; (b) how those beliefs influenced the teachers’ mediation of reform policy in their own classrooms; and (c) points of resonance or tension between teacher’s beliefs and the council’s philosophy towards and management of policy implementation. A qualitative interpretive cross‐case study approach was used with five participant teachers from different secondary subject areas. Results suggested that the unique stance of district administrators to give teachers the opportunity to create their own reform methods, a ‘bottom up’ mode of implementation, appeared to be a significant factor in promoting the reform policy.     

Formative assessment of teachers in the context of an online learning environment

This case study looked at how an assessment strategy designed for an online learning environment can support teachers’ professional development. More specifically, we intended to evaluate how a particular online assessment design can help the participating in-service teachers to recognize the added value of formative assessment, and promote their own use of formative assessment in their professional classroom practices. The presented assessment design consists of a combination of different, non-standard assessment methods in an online environment. We analysed data from 494 questionnaires, the participants’ critical reflections about their learning and the participants’ produced artefacts. The findings illustrate the participants’ recognition of the formative character of the proposed assessment design, reflected not only by the high scores reported in seven of the eight themes explored, but also from the qualitative analysis of the participants’ reflections and artefacts. Suggestions are offered for the improvement of the proposed assessment design, so as to better promote the formative character of assessment. In particular, implications for the development of formative assessment in online professional development are discussed taking into account its potential to promote the participants’ self-regulatory learning processes.     

Making formative assessment discernable to pre‐service teachers of science

The purpose of this pragmatic action research study was to explore our re‐conceptualization efforts in preparing pre‐service teachers to guide the inquiry process with formative assessment and subsequently use the understandings to improve our teacher preparation program. The process was guided by two questions: to what extent did course re‐conceptualization efforts lead to a more informed understanding of formative assessment by pre‐service teachers and did strategies enacted in the re‐conceptualized methods course foster or hinder pre‐service teachers' understanding of formative assessment? Data from this study support the following findings: (1) a substantial pre‐ to post‐methods course difference was realized in the pre‐service teachers' understanding of formative assessment; (2) explicit and contextualized approaches to formative assessment in the methods course led to increased understandings by pre‐service teachers; (3) an implicit approach led to improvements in course structure but did not foster pre‐service teachers' understanding of the reflexive nature of formative assessment; and (4) a field‐based case study on elementary science teaching both hindered and fostered our efforts with formative assessment. This study yields implications for pre‐service teacher education on formative assessment. To foster pre‐service teachers' knowledge and skills, we suggest explicit instruction on formative assessment combined with case studies, field experiences, and ongoing reflection. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 402–421, 2010     

The promise and reality of formative assessment practice in a continuous assessment scheme: the case of Trinidad and Tobago

Continuous Assessment (CA) systems are externally directed, curriculum-based assessment schemes used for both summative and formative purposes within classrooms. CA has been implemented as national policy in several postcolonial developing countries and is believed to hold great promise for improving education outcomes. This theory-driven evaluation (TDE) used a mixed methods research design to interrogate the nature of CA practice. The focus was on stakeholders’ understanding and practice of formative assessment in the CA Programme (CAP) of Trinidad and Tobago. The integrated findings suggest that the programme planners’ formative intent was often not fulfilled. Instead, teachers routinely recorded assessment marks without using the data. There is evidence that formative assessment practice was not congruent with teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices. Although the design of CA schemes suggests the possibility of synergy between formative and summative purposes, in reality this ideal is rarely achieved in these particular contexts.     

An assessment framework for inclusive education: integrating assessment approaches

Teachers committed to inclusive education have the potential to revolutionise pedagogical and assessment practices within regular classrooms simply because students with high needs challenge traditional assumptions about what it means ‘to learn’ and ‘to assess’. This creates opportunities for teachers to find creative ways to ascertain what and how a child learns, and how these assessment results can be communicated to the child, parents, the school and funding bodies to enable further learning. This paper explores diverse assessment practices including criterion-based, normative, ipsative and self-assessment, with both formative and summative functions, reported as being used by teachers in New Zealand who teach students with high needs. These multiple approaches can be integrated into learning stories to ‘narrate’ student learning. An assessment framework is introduced to support teachers to appreciate the functionality of an integrated assessment approach to document student learning and outcomes, arguably a framework applicable for all learners.     

Linking a learning progression for natural selection to teachers' enactment of formative assessment

Learning progressions, or representations of how student ideas develop in a domain, hold promise as tools to support teachers' formative assessment practices. The ideas represented in a learning progression might help teachers to identify and make inferences about evidence collected of student thinking, necessary precursors to modifying instruction to help students advance in their learning. The study reported in this article took the novel approach of using a learning progression for natural selection to support teachers' enactment of formative assessment. Sources of data include interviews and videotapes of six high school biology teachers leading assessment conversations around the same formative assessment questions. Results indicate that while teachers picked out and made inferences about student ideas related to the learning progression during assessment conversations, they did not use all parts of the learning progression in the same way. Furthermore, several of the teachers seemed to use the learning progressions simply as catalogs of misconceptions to be “squashed” rather than drawing upon the developmental affordances offered by a learning progression. Results are framed in terms of the utility of learning progressions as supports for classroom practice. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1181–1210, 2012     

Formative assessment of writing in English as a foreign language

Recognizing the importance of formative assessment, this mixed-methods study investigates how four teachers and 100 students respond to the new emphasis on formative assessment in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing classes in Norway. While previous studies have examined formative assessment in oral classroom interactions and focused on either studying students or teachers, little research has been conducted on formative assessment of writing where both students and teachers are studied. As such, this study provides new insight. The findings mostly indicate that contradictions are prevalent amongst teachers’ and students’ perceptions of formative assessment of writing. The contradictions revolve around feedback, grades, text revision, self-assessment, and student involvement. The identified contradictions suggest the need for developing a mutual understanding of formative assessment in order to make it useful and meaningful.     

What (more) can,and should,assessment do for learning? Observations from ‘successful learning context’ in Singapore

Singapore has earned accolades as one of the leading education systems in the world, based on its record in international assessments, including TIMMS and PISA. This has contributed to the entrenchment of ‘assessment’ becoming an institutional authority of standards, teaching (performativity) and classroom learning. It is against, and amidst such contexts, that this article traces how the notion and discourse of formative assessment and Assessment for Learning (AfL) are widely introduced and used formally across all Singaporean schools, particularly after a recent introduction of new ‘Holistic and Balanced Assessment’ policies. We argue that the very institutional authority of successful high-stake examination results, which served as critical standards of performativity of teaching and learning in the classroom, is being challenged. The changing assessment context of Singaporean schools, therefore serves as an interesting case study site for studying how formative assessment and AfL can be adapted and understood when ‘learning’ is already seen to be successful.     

Teacher or Examiner? The Tensions between Formative and Summative Assessment in the Case of Science Coursework

The aim of the reported study was to explore how science teachers made sense of their roles and responsibilities in teaching and assessing science coursework. The focus was on the teacher assessment, the feedback that teachers gave to students and, how they perceived their role when they taught and assessed students’ science coursework reports. The research methodology included observation of science lessons, collection of marked students’ reports and two interviews with each of the nine participant teachers. Two cases of teachers are considered as representative of the participant teachers and their perceptions and practices are compared and contrasted. Teachers either adopted the role of the examiner or combined the role of the teacher with that of examiner. They distinguished marking of science theory exercises from marking of coursework and, teaching theory from teaching investigations, on the basis that the grade they assigned to coursework contributed to the total grade for external exams. A key conclusion is that teaching and assessment of science coursework need to re-focus on learning. The study calls for changes in public policy for summative assessment to place more reliance on teachers’ assessments and secondly, for changes in school practices in formative assessment for teachers to support students to learn in the case of science coursework.     

Incorporating formative assessment in Iranian EFL writing: a case study

Undergraduate students' experience of assessment in universities is usually of summative assessment which provides only limited information to help students improve their performance. By contrast, formative assessment is informative and forward-looking, possessing the leverage to inform students of their day-to-day progress and inform teachers of how to better tailor their instruction to students' immediate learning needs. Despite these potentials, studies carried out on the use of formative assessment in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts are somehow rare. The current study reports on incorporating formative assessment in an L2 writing course in Iran. The analysis of data from pre- and post-study writing tasks, pre- and post-study questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews revealed that first-year undergraduate students were offered opportunities to improve various aspects of their writing and to develop positive attitudes toward writing as well as formative assessment. However, the students reported several challenges that could have implications for the further implementation of formative assessment in similar contexts.     

Aligning formative and summative assessments: A collaborative action research challenging teacher conceptions

Assessment innovations require explicitly challenging teachers’ assessment conceptions. In changing towards outcome-based curricula, aligning formative to new summative assessments is a challenge. This study, conducted in Dutch Agricultural Vocational Education and its new outcome-based summative assessments, aims to provide concrete insights into what teacher conceptions hinder the development of aligned formative assessment practices. In a structured collaborative action research, practitioners, researchers and consultants analyse teachers’ formative practices, identify underlying current conceptions and their misalignment to the new summative assessment system. An iterative process resulted in an overview of current conceptions versus required conceptions, showing required conceptual changes that are prerequisite for teachers to change towards formative assessment practices that are aligned to the new outcome-based summative assessment system.     

Views and practices from the chalkface: development of a formative assessment multimedia learning environment

Recently, technology-supported formative assessment has caught researchers’ increasing attention. Most of the relevant studies have been carried out in experimental situations to demonstrate the effectiveness of technology-supported formative assessment for learning. However, little is still known about how technology-supported formative assessment is viewed and experienced by teachers in their classrooms. To fill this gap, this study investigated teachers’ voices and practices when they used a formative assessment multimedia learning environment (FAMLE) in their classrooms during three semesters, which involved continuous platform refinement. The findings show that the teachers encountered a number of problems in four major aspects, namely students’ engagement, assessment task design, feedback and follow-up issues. FAMLE went through corresponding refinement in two rounds. A change was evident in teachers’ pedagogical practice of FAMLE from summative and revision use, diagnostic use, to integrative use.     

Implementing curriculum-embedded formative assessment in primary school science classrooms

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

理解课堂中的形成性评价

形成性评价是一种能促进学生学习的有效策略,本文的核心问题正是如何理解课堂中的形成性评价。为此,本文将首先介绍目前美国教育系统中存在的一些问题,并就此问题提出一个可能的解决方案——形成性评价。在简要的背景回顾和文献综述之后,文章将提出我们建构的形成性评价工作模型。接着,本文将从我们围绕形成性评价设计的教师专业发展项目,以及我们自身的探索出发,讨论形成性评价面临的一些新问题。最后便是根据这些新问题,分析如何进一步理解形成性评价。     

Preservice teachers’ implementation of formative assessment in English writing class: Mentoring matters

This multiple-case study investigated the experience of three preservice teachers who attempted formative assessment (FA) strategies in their English as a second language writing class during their teaching practicum in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Based on data from 17 lesson observations and 24 interviews, the study examined the three teachers’ implementation of FA strategies during cycles of pre-, while- and post-writing stages. Also analyzed are the teachers’ reflections on and their mentors’ and students’ evaluation of their FA implementation. The study found the teachers could translate their understanding of FA principles into teaching and assessment strategies appropriately, but the school’s accountability culture worked against their innovation. School mentors’ open-mindedness and support to their FA attempts were found to be crucial. The findings are discussed centering on key issues in the relational, developmental and contextual dimensions of the teaching practicum and their impact on preservice teachers’ practice and attitude.     

Formatives Assessment im Leseunterricht der Grundschule – Implementation und Wirksamkeit eines modularen,materialgestützten Konzepts

Definitions of formative assessment include assessment, feedback and differentiated instruction as key components. We investigated the effects of prepared teaching materials designed to support teachers using learning progress assessment (LPA) to give feedback and adapt differentiated instruction. We also examined to what extend this modular approach can be implemented in regular reading lessons in third grade. In a three-group design all teachers (N?=?44, N?=?945 students) employed a computer-based LPA tool, while teachers in two conditions additionally received prepared feedback material (FB) or feedback and reading instruction material (FB+FM), to support the implementation of the different components of formative assessment. Over the course of one schoolyear, we assessed the implementation outcomes using questionnaires as well as students’ reading achievement and further student outcomes. While acceptability is high, teacher ratings of feasibility are low. In comparison to the LPA group, the additional support in form of prepared materials had no effects on student outcomes. Results are discussed regarding the question of how teachers can optimally be supported in using formative assessment.     

Formative assessment in the Grenadian lower secondary school: teachers’ perceptions,attitudes and practices

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions, attitudes and frequency of use of formative assessment strategies of teachers in the Grenadian lower secondary school (Forms 1, 2 and 3). The study, which was quantitative in nature, involved 252 lower secondary school teachers. Overall the participants had positive perceptions and attitudes towards formative assessment. Significant differences in the perceptions of formative assessment held by trained and untrained teachers (p?p?=?.001) were found. Trained and untrained teachers were found to have similar frequencies of practice of formative assessment strategies. About half of the teachers reported not allowing students to provide input into test construction and encouraging students to engage in journal writing. The study raises questions about the hindrances that teachers face in the integration of some formative assessment strategies and provides policy-makers with valuable information to support strengthening of teacher education efforts.