Formative assessment: what is this method of testing learning?

Let's see what are the characteristics of formative assessment and what is it for.

In the field of education, more and more research is being done to develop the best models to use.

Among them, formative assessment includes methodologies for testing how effective teaching has been.. We are going to discover in detail how these techniques work and what is their importance to guarantee a good training to the students.

What is formative assessment?

The formative evaluation would refer to all the methods with which the teachers have to verify in a continuous way, during the whole educational process, that indeed the students are assimilating the concepts that are being taught to them. These tools are also known as assessment for learning. The process can also be of self-evaluation by the student, through the practices they carry out in the classroom..

Another of the utilities of formative assessment is that they provide a guide for the teacher so that he/she knows how to adapt his/her teachings in the future, changing some guidelines if the students' evaluation has not been as expected, or maintaining those aspects that have favored a correct reception of the contents by the students.

The concept of formative evaluation arose through the American scholar Michael Scrivenin the 1960s, as the idea of a method to check the effectiveness of a study plan and to be able to modify it in case there are aspects to be improved. Scriven was followed by Benjamin Bloom, an American psychologist who continued to define the concept, stating that formative assessment was the mechanism for improving the cycle of teaching and learning received by students.

The key to the definition given by these two authors lies in the importance they place on the possible changes that can be made by the teacher based on the results obtained. In other words, the key to formative assessment is its potential to modify the teaching program. its potential to modify the teaching program in an organic way according to the effectiveness that is being detected.. It is not a simple indicator of student performance, but has a much broader function.

Differences with summative assessment

As opposed to formative assessment, there is the concept of summative assessment, which is much more common. In fact, Michael Scriven said that all evaluations can be summative, but only a few of them can be considered formative. Let's review the criteria that make them different.

1. When it takes place

The first differentiation that we find has to do with the moment at which the assessment is carried out. In the case of summative assessment, it will take place once the teaching activity has been completed. On the other hand, formative evaluation requires that it takes place during the course of the activity, before it comes to an end..

2. What is the goal

The goal of summative assessment is to be able to make a decision about how much learning we think students have had, i.e., how much they have learned about the proposed lesson. However, formative assessment aims to find areas for improvement in the teaching methodology used and thus to be more efficient each time. and thus be more efficient each time.

3. What feedback there is

In line with the previous point, feedback would play different roles in the two types of assessment. For summative, it would simply consist of the judgment that dictates the student's grade. On the other hand, in formative assessment the purpose of feedback is to go back to the material and methods used to see how they can be rethought to achieve better results in the future. in the future.

4. What is the frame of reference?

The frame of reference used in summative evaluation can be of two types. First, the normative type can be used, in which a comparison is made between each student assessed and all the others. On the other hand, one can choose to use a standardized criterion that will be used for all. In the case of formative assessment The criterion frame of reference is always used, so that all students are assessed on these parameters..

The usefulness of formative assessment

Since the term was coined, countless studies have been carried out on formative assessment, reaching several conclusions about the potential of using this methodology. Firstly, it has been shown that student performance is higher when we use this system. Students are more motivated, since they perceive that they are an active part of the educational system and are much more than just a grade. and are much more than just a grade.

In order to achieve these benefits, there are certain principles that must be complied with when applying formative assessment. Firstly, the learning objectives and the criteria by which learning will be considered successful must be set out from the outset. In addition, classroom discussions should be generated to verify that students have indeed understood the concepts. Students should be guided with instructions and comments.

Another point that must be fulfilled is that of to make it easier for the students themselves to collaborate in the task of instructing the othersThe students who have assimilated the knowledge more quickly should help those who have had more problems in understanding it, as part of a team. Finally, each student should be empowered to take charge of his or her own learning process and not be merely passive subjects in the classroom.

Different strategies to follow

Within the methods of formative assessment there is a range of strategies that teachers can choose to achieve their goals. We will look at some of them to familiarize ourselves with the most common ones.

1. Understanding the goals

We have already seen that one of the main rules of formative assessment is that students understand the objectives of the teaching that is taking place, so it is not surprising that the first strategy we find is along the lines of verifying this criterion. The objectives to be achieved should be presented before the beginning of each lesson, but teachers should also explain to the students the path they will follow to reach these goals.

Studies show that when students have prior explanations of the objectives to be achieved and the steps they will take to reach them are explained to them, they obtain better results than those students who do not receive any information about the objectives. than those students who do not receive any such information and are simply exposed to the contents of the lesson directly.

2. Comments

Other research records that giving feedback to learners, i.e., giving them feedback on how they are doing and how to improve their methods, giving them feedback on how they are performing the task and how to improve their methods, beyond a simple numerical grade, helps and motivates them to improve, facilitating better results than those who are simply graded.This, beyond a simple numerical grade, helps and motivates them to improve, facilitating better results than those who are simply graded. That is why comments are the second strategy to follow in formative evaluation.

These comments must be independent of the grades, i.e., they must be carried out as independent processes. The explanation is that in cases where a comment is attached to the grade obtained in a test, students show a tendency to pay attention only to the grade, completely ignoring the content of the comment next to it.

In such cases, students will be more busy comparing their grades with their peers rather than stopping to read the words and advice the teacher has left written to try to guide them in the learning process and make them improve.

3. Questions

Questioning is the easiest way to get information, so it is an indispensable strategy in formative assessment to find out how effective we are being in our teaching task. But But simply asking questions does not guarantee that we will get the answers we are looking for, so the key is to ask the right questions.The key is to ask the right questions. These questions should encourage the student's thinking process.

We must guide the questions so that a debate is generated among the students and so that everyone can reflect using the concepts learned. A good method would be to ask one of the students for his or her opinion on the explanations of another student, or to draw out the points in common or the divergences between the points of view of two of his or her classmates. In this way, we can get good indications of the degree to which the knowledge has been absorbed.

Another key is to give students long waiting times for reflection, without making them feel that there iswithout them feeling that there is a rush to get the answer immediately. Studies show that this methodology facilitates more confident, longer responses, greater range of response alternatives, more complete reports, and a lower non-response rate.

Bibliographical references:

• Allal, L. (1980). Formative assessment strategies: psycho-pedagogical conceptions and modes of application. Childhood and learning. Taylor & Francis.
• López, C.R. (1981). Criteria for formative assessment: Objectives. Content. Teacher. Learning. Resources. Narcea.
• Rosales, M. (2014). Evaluative process: summative evaluation, formative evaluation and Assesment its impact in current education. Iberoamerican Congress of Science, Technology, Innovation and Education.