The myriad advantages of using formative assessment

There are countless ways to assess students. Speaking broadly, two key assessment categories are “summative” and “formative”. Summative assessment, often the most popular one, aims to measure how much the student has learned upon completion of a course or part of it. In contrast, formative assessment aims to measure how a student is learning during the course.

Typically, formative assessments are seen predominantly as a means of providing feedback using methods such as one-minute notes, responses to multiple-choice questions, surprise tests and more. Usually, they carry minimal weight toward the final grade earned by the student. However, I believe a grade can become a better indicator of a student’s learning when it is based on appropriate formative assessments. This article looks at ways to assess students’ learning more effectively through formative assessments and basing grades entirely on them.

Understand the advantages of formative assessments

Summative assessments, especially in STEM disciplines, tend to be closed-book, closed-ended and usually last between one and three hours. Closed-book exams rely significantly on memory recall and thus cause much stress in students. It can be argued that summative assessments test the competition level rather than the learning level of students. Further, closed-ended exams can test only a limited depth of learning in a course. Bloom’s taxonomy, the popular model of learning stages, lists the six levels of learning (in increasing depth) as follows: (1) recall; (2) understand; (3) apply; (4) analyse; (5) evaluate; (6) create.

Meanwhile, formative methods lend themselves to more holistic assessments and can test the entire range of learning levels given by Bloom’s taxonomy. They can be open-book, open-ended and unlimited by time – sometimes they can even last an entire semester.

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Plan and communicate early

Formative assessments need a good appreciation of how students learn, and then focus on ways to improve the learning. Ideally, formative assessments should be thought out during the course design stage and then clearly communicated to students on the first day of classes. This helps students be clear on the learning expectations and plan their time commitment throughout the semester/quarter.

Make assessments fun and reflect the learning

Students can be assigned reading to learn related information (not the basic principles) outside of class, using the “flipped learning” strategy. Then, at the beginning of the next class, a short test is given to ensure the reading took place. You should consider making these tests online, comprising a game format with leaderboards to increase the fun element. They can also be designed so the answers fill in online crosswords or word puzzles.

These tests/games can be made open-book or with students allowed to use their notes, and the questions need to be framed so they can be answered in a fairly short test time, say 10 minutes, and only if the student has actually read the material. Revisiting a concept or fact in this way during a test reinforces the students’ learning – which is, after all, our primary purpose.

Communicate the meaningful nature of formative assessments to students

Most students in a class want to learn, but some are tired of traditional assessment methods. Thus, helping students understand the advantages and more meaningful nature of formative assessments is key to encouraging them to participate in and reap the benefits of such assessments. The advantages from the student perspective, as outlined above, along with the resultant lesser stress and greater emphasis on learning over competition, need to be explicitly communicated on the first day of classes and at suitable intervals throughout the course.

If assignments are over an extended period discuss them at appropriate times

Formative assessments that promote holistic learning, including the deepest “create” level of Bloom’s taxonomy, can be designed to take place over an entire semester. In such a case, talk about the exercise and the expected progress at relevant times – I’d suggest about 10 times during the semester, with the frequency increasing toward the end. This will help students pace themselves and be better prepared to face the challenges of a rigorous exercise.

Do not plan too many formative assessments

Formative assessments take time to design. The more challenging ones, especially those that are semester-long, also take time to evaluate. Thus, be sure to find a good balance in your assessments. As an example, in one semester you might aim for about about five or six online quizzes with auto-grading, a couple of tutorial problem sets and a semester-long challenging exercise, along with four or five non-graded class games for effective learning. That balance should result in a reasonable time commitment for the instructor.

Remember, summative assessments can still be utilised

When thinking critically, one can realise that summative assessments are more for society, which is accustomed to the competition levels reflected in rankings lists based on proctored, closed-ended, time-bound exams. Summative assessments may not be necessary at all to promote student learning, whereas formative assessments are more clearly designed towards this outcome. However, if the shift to solely formative assessments to determine a grade is too big, one can use a combination of formative and summative assessments, with the latter simply carrying much less weight toward the final grade (perhaps 20 to 30 per cent).

In summary, it is my firm opinion that focusing on formative assessment helps improve student learning. In addition, the significant reduction in distress and increase in eustress could help address students’ mental health difficulties in these challenging times.      

G. K. Suraishkumar is a professor in the department of biotechnology at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India.

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