How Does Formative Assessment Support Student Performance?

How does formative assessment support student performance?

Formative assessment is a ongoing process used by teachers during instruction that gives explicit feedback to students to adjust teaching and learning process to improve students’ achievement of the desired instructional outcomes. It is also known as “assessment for learning”.

Formative assessment is proven to be highly effective way to enhance and support student performance. The purpose of formative assessment is to give students the means and motivation to take ownership of their own learning. This means that students need to be responsible for their own learning. Students themselves must have the initiative to discover what to learn and how to learn. At the same time, teachers play important roles to encourage students to monitor and support their own learning. More powerful learning happens when students have more control over their own learning through such assessment practices. They should not be excluded from the assessment process. Students will be able to know what they are ready to learn next.

Through formative assessment, students are able to know and understand their specific learning goals clearly. This can be done through direct communication which involves interactions between teacher and student and student and student. Students are informed directly their specific learning goals. For example, at the beginning of the lesson, teacher can tell the students they will be tested on “Adverbs” at the end of the lesson. When the students are clear of what they have to learn in the learning activities, they will concentrate their efforts to the specific learning areas and improve overall performance.

Furthermore, teachers are able to identify students’ current knowledge and skills and decide the steps to be taken to achieve the desired goals. Formative assessment highlights the needs of each student. It enables teachers to diagnose a learning problem early enough for them to take immediate remedial action. For examples, teachers can use homework, classroom dialogue, quick class test and observation of student behaviour in the class as ways of conducting continuous assessment. Nevertheless, formative assessment only shows its effectiveness when the teacher is clear about the intended learning goals of the students. The results of the assessments must be able to allow teachers to determine which student need immediate attention, which students need a different approach and which students are not learning. From this point, the teachers can provide appropriate remedial activities and enrichment activities. Remedial activities must be given in a new way and involve students in different types of learning experiences. For instance, teachers can make adjustment on the changes in format, organization or teaching method in order to meet the changing needs of the students. The students are the ones who benefit from the adjustments.

Formative assessment focuses on progress or growth, not just the number, score or grade. After confirming what a student has mastered, teachers can identify the learning that comes next for the student. This will indeed improve learning as instructions can be adjusted and modified immediately after the assessment. It creates effective classroom discussions, questions, activities and tasks that offer the evidence of how students are progressing to the learning goals. It also helps students to build “learning to learn” skills. Students are able to build their own understanding of new concepts rather than only absorbing information provided by teachers. Thus, they are able to develop invaluable skills for lifelong learning.

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