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Formative Tests and Assessment for Learning
1Muchlas Suseno Universitas Negeri Jakarta Introduction
Assessment is the central process in effective instruction as it bridges between teaching and learning. Therefore, it is apparent what students learn cannot be predicted with certainty unless an assessment is conducted (Wiliam, 2013). Regarding this Earl, citing Wigginns (1993) claimed that assessment and learning reside side by side. Etymologically, as she put it, the word assessment is derived from the Latin assidere, meaning “to sit beside or with”(L. Earl, 2003).
The historical perspectives of testing and assessment dates back to the 19th century when the doors of schoolhouses were initially open. During this time, teachers tested their students to see if they had acquired what have been taught (U.S. Department of Education, 2008) as cited by Brink (2011). Regarding, particularly, the issues of assessment for learning as opposed to the assessment of and as learning was dealt by the Working Group on 14– 19 Reform, chaired by Sir Mike Tomlinson (Jones, 2005). Comparing between assessment of learning and assessment for learning, Stiggins (2005) claimed that the first has served as a great intimidator although for some students it may facilitate learning motivation to grow.
The latter, however, gives far more productive ways to help students succeed in learning.
This is likely applicable to cover broader contexts. However, specifically the idea of assessment for learning arose out of a 1998 landmark research paper by Black and William as a result of synthesizing over 250 studies linking assessment and learning (L. M. Earl, 1998).
Further, the following is what she discussed about assessment for learning.
Assessment for learning shifts the emphasis from summative to formative assessment, from making judgments to creating descriptions that can be used in the service of the next stage of learning. Regarding this, teachers should do these activities, such as:
collect a wide range of data for a different purpose as intended
craft assessment tasks that open a window on what students know
use the insights that come from the process to design the next steps in instruction
1A paper presented in a National Symposium on English Language Assessment for Learning, March 21, 2019 held by the British Council Indonesia Foundation.
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use observation, worksheets, questioning in class, and student-teacher conferences
In a broader context, William (2013) clarified what he called key strategies of assessment for learning focussing on what should be done by teachers, students and peers with regards to three attributes posted in three questions, where the learners are going, where the learners are standing and how to get there. Such is presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Key Strategies of Assessment for Learning Where Learners are
going
Where Learners are Standing
How to get there Teachers Clarifying, Sharing,
and Understanding learning intensions
Engineering effective discussions, activities, and tasks that elicit evidence of learning
Feedback that moves learning forward
Peers
Activating students as learning resources for one another
Students
Activating students as owners of their own learning
Analysis and Discussion
With regards to the above description, it is apparent that formative assessment plays a pivotal role as far as assessment for learning is concerned. When this is the case, feedbacks are the key role as they offer answers to the three questions regarding the key strategies of assessment for learning, as noted above (Voinea, 2018). Further, as she put it, good feedbacks should possess some characteristics, such as:
To be addressed as soon as the learning activity happened;
To address not only the mistakes made by the student, but also the achievement they got,
To be aimed at facilitatingstudent’s learning development, not punishing or putting them to be defensive,
To address the learning behaviour,
To inspire and support development, change of learning for the betterment of learning,
To be detailed, and explicit,
To be addressed in a constructive manner, bringing forward suggestions regarding what the students could do to correct mistakes, and improve learning,
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To propose viable behaviour change and learning strategies.
To be addressed in a non-judgmental form,
To be formulated as a suggestion, proposal for the student to consider, not as an obligation
To be addressed highlighting how it can contribute to the student learning development and not engage in comparisons with other students;
To be addressed with a focus on progress towards the learning goals
To be addressed as revealing an image of learning performance as a point/moment within the larger process of learning,
To induce the idea of improvement through error correction, revising of learning tasks, use of feedback to improve learning.
Regarding error correction, as noted, individual feedback and classroom discussions turn out to be an effective way to improve students’ writing. In addition, there is significantly different achievement of students in writing before and after such a feedback (Suseno, 2014).
When this is the case, I believe collaboration, sharing, and facilitation of three players in class activities will be the answer. In other words, how teachers, individual students and peers collaborate, share and facilitate will determine how feedback work. (figure 1).
Figure 1. Collaboration to promote feedback (Source: Original)
Collaboration,
Sharing, Facilitating
4 Conclusion
1. Assessment and instruction, another pair terminology for testing and teaching, are embedded one to another. It resembles two faces in the same coin.
2. Formative tests appear to be the key activities in assessment for learning.
3. In formative tests, it is the feedbacks which determine success of failure of class instruction.
4. Feedbacks should qualify some characteristics to make them work effectively.
5. To implement such quality feedbacks, teachers, individual students and peers should collaborate, share and facilitate one among the others.
References
Brink, C. S. (2011). A Historical Perspective of Testing and Assessment Including the Impact of Summative and Formative Assessment on Student Achievement. The University of Southern Mississippi. Retrieved from https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertation
Earl, L. (2003). Assessment of Learning, for Learning, and as Learning. In Assessment as Learning: Using Classroom Assessment to Maximize Student Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Earl, L. M. (1998). Assessment For Learning ; Assessment As Learning : Changing Practices Means Changing Beliefs. Assessment and Learning, 80(2), 2–6.
Jones, C. A. (2005). Assessment for Learning. London: Learning and Skills Development Agency.
Stiggins, R. (2005). From Formative Assessment to Assessment FOR Learning: Phi Delta Kappan, 87(04), 324–328.
Suseno, M. (2014). Roles Of Feedback to Overcome Grammatical Problems of Academic Writing In Efl Class. In J. Nurkamto (Ed.), The 61 TEFLIN International Conference 2014 (pp. 685–688). Solo: English Education Department, Teacher Training and Education Faculty Sebelas Maret University.
Voinea, L. (2018). Formative Assessment As Assessment For Formative Assessment As Assessment For Learning Development. Journal of Pedagogy, 1, 7–23. Retrieved from http://revped.ise.ro/category/2018-en/ This
Wiliam, D. (2013). Assessment : The Bridge between Teaching and Learning.Voices from the Middle, 21(2), 15–20.
Collaboration,
Sharing, Facilitating
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