2.2. Meaning of assessment 17
2.2.2. Formative assessment 20
According to the NCS there are four types of assessment: baseline, diagnostic, formative and summative. Baseline assessment is done to determine learners’ knowledge at the beginning of every learning experience, and diagnostic assessment is done to discover the cause or causes
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of a learning barrier. Formative assessment, according to the DoE (1998), is assessment for learning, which implies that it takes place during teaching and learning and consists of formal and informal tasks. Summative assessment, on the other hand, is a summary of learners’
achievement at a specific point in time (James, 1998, p. 27), which gives an overall picture of their progress, (Cele, 2009). According to Van der Merwe (2011) summative assessment is usually more formal and more structured than formative assessment. He further states that forms of assessment mostly associated with summative assessment are tests and examinations. Cele (2009) asserts that summative assessment normally occurs after learning has taken place through good formative assessment. In terms of assessment in Business Studies formative assessment comprises formal and informal assessment tasks. This study focuses on formative assessment as it investigates experiences of teachers in designing formal assessment tasks.
Formative assessment focuses on the outcomes which learners have to achieve during and after the teaching and learning process. These outcomes are encapsulated in each subject offered in the FET phase, of which Business Studies is one. Formative assessment refers to frequent, interactive assessment of learner progress and understanding to identify learning needs and adapt teaching appropriately (Cassim, 2010). Formative assessment, according to Cele (2009), is consistent with the theory of social constructivism as it involves an interaction between a teacher and a learner during a learning process, the theory on which this study is based. It is interactive because it involves learners, since OBE is learner-centred. This learner- centred approach focuses on factors that are under the control of the learner, while taking into account their interaction with the environment and context (Kaftan, Buck & Haack, 2006).
Identifying learning needs and adapting teaching appropriately, as Cassim (2010) contends, requires provision of feedback.
Formative assessment refers to assessment that is specificall y intended to generate feedback on performance to improve and accelerate learning (Sadler, 1998). Marsh (2004) asserts that formative assessment provides data about instructional units in progress and students in action. They help to develop or form the final curriculum product, and help students adjust to their learning tasks through the feedback they receive (Marsh, 2004, p.51). The key issue is that formative assessment should provide feedback to learners.
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Cele (2009) says that formative assessment gives constructive feedback that may have a combination of three purposes, namely diagnosing student difficulties, assessing improvement over time, and providing information about how to improve their learning.
Constructive feedback is given to enable learners to grow, because they learn from their mistakes. It is characterised by ongoing feedback and gives information to both the learners and the educator as to whether the LOs are being achieved or not. The same sentiment is shared by Ntuli (2007), who believes that constructive feedback provides information about problems, errors, misunderstandings, understandings and progress during instruction.
Recording of learner performance assists in providing feedback about progress of learners (Blaz, 2008). However, Chapman (2005) asserts that only selected results from identified formative assessments are averaged and included in the formal grade. Assessment investigated in this study is formal assessment which should be recorded and be used to provide feedback to all stakeholders. It can be concluded that feedback which aligns to the purposes mentioned above is determined by appropriately designed assessment tasks that adhere to assessment policy requirements.
Key issues on formative assessment relevant to this research project have been highlighted in the discussion above: for example, that formative assessment is consistent with constructivism and that it is intended to generate feedback. It is apparent that properly designed assessment tasks have to incorporate these aspects. However, some empirical studies revealed that some teachers were not implementing formative assessment due to various challenges. Cele (2009) revealed that teachers did not have programmes of implementing formative assessment in their daily operations. He argues that they have a limited understanding about the value of formative assessment. His findings were based on interviews, observation and document analysis of Grade 7 teachers in three purposively selected primary schools. Van der Merwe (2011) noted through the use of interviews and observations that teachers did not have the necessary knowledge and skills to use formative assessment in their Mathematics classrooms to assist with teaching and learning. Lack of knowledge and skills in the new assessment approach can have an adverse impact on teachers’ ability to design assessment tasks. He further argues that teachers did not see formative assessment as integral to learning and teaching, and was doubtful that they realised that the act of assessment should be used to aid the teaching and learning process. This implies that they see no difference between formative and summative assessment.
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It has also been found that teachers do not reject or resist change in practicing formative assessment, but they have not been properly assisted to replace the old practices with new ones (Ngwenya, 2009). Furthermore, they interpret formative assessment according to their own
accumulated understanding, which differs from teacher to teacher. Similar findings were presented by Raibojane (2005) from an investigation on whether teachers were using formative assessment or not when teaching Mathematics. He discovered that Mathematics teachers rarely used formative assessment.
It is evident that teachers have challenges with implementing formative assessment, in which teaching, learning and assessment are integrated. It is also obvious that designing assessment activities is therefore highly impaired.
There is a gap in the literature on the implementation of formative assessment in Business Studies. It was indicated earlier that assessing acquired skills as well as knowledge which can be applied in various contexts is fundamental in Business Studies. Therefore the paragraphs that follow concentrate on performance-based or authentic assessment.