Assessment and Classroom Learning

This article is a review of the literature on classroom formative assessment. Several studies show firm evidence that innovations designed to strengthen the frequent feedback that students receive about their learning yield substantial learning gains. The perceptions of students and their role in self‐assessment are considered alongside analysis of the strategies used by teachers and the formative strategies incorporated in such systemic approaches as mastery learning. There follows a more detailed and theoretical analysis of the nature of feedback, which provides a basis for a discussion of the development of theoretical models for formative assessment and of the prospects for the improvement of practice.     

Facilitating Student Learning,the Assessment of Learning,and Curricular Improvement Through a Graduate Social Work Integrative Seminar

Social work programs undertake to educate competent professionals and to promote critical thinking among students who are expected to become lifelong learners. In addition, programs are called on to develop reliable and valid measures for assessing student learning outcomes and to use assessment results to reflect upon and strengthen curriculum. This study explores the use of a graduate integrative seminar to accomplish these goals. The authors describe the learning and assessment processes of the seminar. The authors used a mixed-method research design to analyze data from students over a 3-year period regarding the effectiveness of the seminar as well as from graduate faculty regarding student achievement of curricular objectives. Results indicate that formative assessment processes promote student learning in a manner that mobilizes students to strive for excellence, and that an embedded measure of learning outcomes in the form of a final integrative project may serve as a rigorous assessment tool.     

大学英语自主学习形成性评估实证研究

自主学习要求学习者监控学习进程和评价学习效果,传统的终结性评估不适用于自主学习。构建了适用于自主学习的形成性评估模式,该模式由"学习档案袋评价""教师评价"及"学生自评和他评"构成。经过在两个教学班级一学期的教学实验,结果表明:通过对学生自主学习过程的监控和管理,形成性评估激发了学生语言学习的动机和兴趣,促进了学生学习策略形成,有效培养了学生自主学习能力。     

The relationship between formative assessment and reading achievement: A multilevel analysis of students in 19 countries/regions

Despite the general consensus on the positive impact of formative assessment on student learning, researchers have not shown the underlying mechanisms between specific formative assessment strategies and academic performance on an international sample. This study examines the link between student and teacher reports of teachers’ formative assessment strategies (i.e. clarifying goals and monitoring progress, providing feedback, and instructional adjustments) and students’ reading achievement, based on data from 151,969 fifteen-year-olds in 5,225 schools in 19 countries/regions in PISA 2018 via multilevel analysis of plausible values. The results show that clarifying goals and monitoring progress, and instruction adjustments are positively linked to reading achievement, but providing feedback alone has no significant impact. These findings highlight the complexity of formative assessment as a multifaceted concept and the different impacts of formative assessment strategies on student learning. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Formative Assessment Techniques to Support Student Motivation and Achievement

Formative assessment can have a powerful impact on student motivation and achievement. This article discusses five key practices that teachers can use to gather important information about student understanding, provide feedback to students, and enable students to set and attain meaningful learning goals. Each of the techniques can enhance student motivation as well as achievement.     

Assessment and Evaluation in Social Work Education: Formative and Summative Approaches

Despite a wealth of tacit knowledge in academia regarding effective teaching strategies and a rich theoretical and empirical knowledge base on student learning, social work instructors wishing to identify appropriate ways to measure teaching and learning have little evidence to guide them. This article presents a framework for assessment of student learning and evaluation of instructor teaching that distinguishes between formative methods, which support an ongoing process of improvement, and summative methods, which represent a measure of competence or mastery. While summative methods are often used to meet institutional or programmatic goals, formative methods bridge assessment and evaluation and can result in a more reflective, constructive, and productive experience for both instructors and students.     

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

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

A case study of a formative assessment practice and the effects on students’ self-regulated learning

The study investigates one mathematics teacher’s implementation of formative assessment and its effects on students’ self-regulated learning (SRL). A questionnaire administered before and after the eight-month long intervention shows a significant effect, compared to two control classes, on students’ motivational beliefs involved in SRL. Qualitative data shows a notable enhancement of the students’ SRL behavior in the classroom. Analysis of the teacher’s implemented formative assessment shows a practice integrating several aspects of formative assessment, and provides empirical evidence of what formative assessment with large effects on students’ SRL may look like and how it fits with models of SRL development.     

The Quick Quiz: An Unplugged Assessment for the Math Educator's Toolbox

When implemented correctly, feedback from assessments can result in students reflecting and rethinking their mathematics, while increasing their effort and motivation. This article explores a formative assessment technique for use in the first few minutes of each class. Readers will find out how they can use the QuickQuiz (QQ) to drive instructional decisions in math classrooms, while also being a medium for progress monitoring, communicating to parents, and lesson planning.     

Effects of formative feedback on intrinsic motivation: Examining ethnic differences

In this study we investigate the influence of ethnic differences on student motivation when learning from formative feedback. Interpersonal teacher behavior and student motivational needs are used to explain the effects of assessment for learning on intrinsic motivation by comparing students from different ethnic backgrounds. The final study's sample consisted of 558 students from Dutch secondary vocational education. Multi-level structural equation modeling was used to test possible models. Our findings show that modes of feedback (monitoring, scaffolding) and teacher interpersonal behavior are strongly related to predictors of student motivation. In line with self-determination theory, our findings indicated that competence and relatedness mediate the effect of feedback (both monitoring and scaffolding) on motivation. Multi-group analyses showed only small differences for ethnicity, especially in relation to mode of feedback, which led us to conclude that, irrespective of the “Immigrant Paradox”, assessment for learning may facilitate feedback provision for both immigrant and native Dutch students indiscriminately, thereby enhancing motivation to learn. Implications of these findings for learning in classrooms are discussed.     

Comparing student learning experiences of in-text commentary and rubric-articulated feedback: strategies for formative assessment

This study compares students’ experiences of two types of criteria-based assessment: in-text commentary and rubric-articulated feedback, in an assessment design combining the two feedback channels. The main aim is to use students’ responses to shed light on how feedback strategies for formative assessment can be optimised. Following action research methodology, the study discusses key categories of student responses from three sources: reflective texts, a questionnaire, and interviews. Results show that different functions were attributed to the two feedback channels: in-text commentary to lower-order concerns related to language proficiency, and rubric-articulated feedback to higher-order concerns related to an overview of writing achievement. We argue that the different functions have the potential of creating a sufficiently balanced assessment design with the possibility of serving both short-term and continuous learning goals. On the other hand, some students found it difficult to navigate between the two feedback channels. The article therefore ends with a ‘lessons learned’ section where we list possible ways in which the current assessment design can be improved for optimal use of the synergy effects emanating from a combination of in-text commentary and rubric-articulated feedback for formative purposes.     

“大学英语视听说”课程形成性评估的实践研究

对“大学英语视听说”课程形成性评估过程进行探索.围绕形成性评估的关键特点,构建了符合大学英语选修课特点的课程形成性评估框架.根据现有的研究,形成性评估包括三个重要环节：确定学习目标;收集学习信息;及时给予回馈.学习目标必须高效、合理、科学;学习信息必须有规划性;反馈的主体和形式必须多样.根据这三个关键因素,对本课程实行了形成性评估,切实提高了教学的有效性,有利于促进大学英语选修课形成性评估的改革.     

Assessment for learning: a catalyst for student self-regulation

The development of students as lifelong, self-regulating learners is a valued outcome of higher education. To this end, the current project investigated how students in an undergraduate course experienced and responded to a teaching–learning environment where they were expected to take responsibility for their learning. The pedagogic environment of this course was grounded in strategies and activities associated with assessment for learning (AfL). As such, students were expected to participate in activities that provided them with opportunities to exercise control over their learning. Data gathering comprised individual semi-structured interviews and the collection of artefacts. Findings indicated goals helped students know where they were going; exemplars provided insights into what was expected and what constituted quality work; course activities elicited evidence of learning; dialogic interactions around these generated feedback about understandings and progress; the evaluation of exemplars developed evaluative knowledge, skill and expertise; peer review and feedback provided an authentic context for evaluation and monitoring of works-in-progress. It was concluded that, while each of the AfL strategies contributed to student self-regulation, the full impact of AfL as a catalyst for self-regulated learning was realised in the cumulative and recursive effect these strategies had on students’ thinking, actions and feelings.     

A Study on the Correlation between Second Language Learning Motivation and Formative Assessment

This paper explores the relationship between motivation and assessment and find out the assessment strategies which could motivate students better in L2 learning based on the data and responses collected from 30 non-English majors in a regional university. The data and responses revealed that formative assessment could motivate students better, especially during the process of English learning. It also revealed some problems existing in the assessment strategies implemented in this study, such as the impartiality of peer-assessment and the poor efficiency of group work.     

Using Assessment for Learning and Learning from Assessment

Innovation in assessment is no longer an option in higher education in Britain if we examine the aims and the claims that are being made. From the Dearing Report to our module guides, we claim to wish to support independent and life-long learning, put the students at the heart of the learning process and to help students take responsibility for their own learning. This cannot be done without including students in mainstream summative assessment and without reconciling the contradictions that currently contribute to impeding the students this access. This article will look briefly at the aims of higher education, provide an overview of current thinking on student learning and formative assessment as a framework for offering one possible practical solution to the problem. This possible solution is Taras's (2001) version of student self-assessment which works within the theoretical framework of Sadler's (1989) theory of formative assessment and of what we know about student learning.     

形成性评估在高职大学英语教学中的实践探讨

形成性评估是教学过程中通过及时、有效的反馈促进教学健康发展的评估手段,是对终结性评价单一评估模式的有效补充。本文通过在高职大学英语教学中引进形成性评估机制的教学实践,论证了该评估模式可以激发学生的学习兴趣,培养学生的合作意识,促进学生自主学习的习惯形成,从而有效提高学生的英语学习成绩。     

形成性评价在课程教学中的应用研究

以大学英语课程教学为案例,通过行动研究,以考察形成性评价对学生学习态度、学习行为及结果的影响程度为目的。采用问卷调查、访谈、学生学习档案等工具采集数据。结果显示,形成性评价的应用确实能给学生的学习态度、动机及学习行为带来积极变化:大多数学生(70%以上)欢迎形成性评价在课堂教学中的应用;学生学习英语的信心更足、积极性更高;学生更愿意花更多时间在平时的学习过程中而非以往的考前突击应付、更注重培养和使用适合自己的学习策略;对学习成绩的提高也起到了良好的促进作用。     

Students’ Interpretation of Formative Assessment Feedback: Three Claims for Why We Know So Little About Something So Important

If K‐12 students are to be fully integrated as active participants in their own learning, understanding how they interpret formative assessment feedback is needed. The objective of this article is to advance three claims about why teachers and assessment scholars/specialists may have little understanding of students’ interpretation of formative assessment feedback. The three claims are as follows. First, there is little systematic research of K‐12 students’ interpretations of feedback. Systematic research requires gathering substantive evidence of students’ cognitive and emotional processes using psychological methods and tools. Second, there is an overemphasis on the external assessment process at the expense of uncovering learners’ internal reasoning and emotional processes. This overemphasis may be due to vestiges of behavioral approaches and lack of training in social cognitive methods. Third, there are psychological tools such as the clinical interview, pioneered by Piaget and used by psychologists to “enter the child's mind,” which may be helpful in uncovering students’ interpretation of feedback and associated behavioral responses. If the purpose of formative assessment is to change student learning, and feedback is delivered as a conduit to help with this long‐term change, understanding students’ interpretation of feedback plays a central role in the validity of the process.     

Effects of mobile-app learning diaries vs online training on specific self-regulated learning components

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is associated with increased academic achievement and improved learning outcomes for students. Thus, it is import to find ways to improve SRL, such as through training. Face-to-face training, discipline-dependent training, and paper-and-pencil diaries are limited in the number of students they can reach. The current randomised control study implemented discipline-independent online training and novel mobile-app based diaries and tested SRL motivation and perceived strategy use in 73 University students from mixed disciplines and study mode. Results showed that participants in the combined condition (training with diaries) improved more than other conditions. Specifically, they improved on SRL knowledge, metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies (elaboration, organisation and critical thinking), and resources management strategies (time-management and effort regulation). The present study extends previous findings, showing that positive effects can be found for SRL when a discipline-independent approach is used coupled with online training and a mobile-app based daily diary.

     

What motivates students? A study on the effects of teacher leadership and students’ self-efficacy

Students’ educational motivation is significant for performance and achieving learning, but little is known about what fuels such motivation. Educational motivation is regarded as the drive and inner state that energise educational activities, facilitate learning and channel behaviour towards achieving educational goals. Educational motivation paves the way for students to learn and acquire the knowledge that is essential for successful study outcomes. This article aims to explore what determines students’ educational motivation. Building on the self-determination theory, we modelled the influence of teachers’ leadership and students’ self-efficacy on students’ educational motivation. We used survey data from a sample of upper secondary school students in Sweden; we received a total of 993 answers, equal to a response rate of 74%. The results show that students’ self-efficacy and teacher leadership are of extreme importance for students’ educational motivation, and that highly efficacious students lose most educational motivation when the teacher’s leadership is poor. The results thus support the importance of teachers’ leadership for encouraging student learning.