TEACHER EDUCATORS’ UNDERSTANDING OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Theme 4: Mathematics teacher educators’ conception of feedback Category 1 Feedback is reporting out to students
5.3 Teachers educators’ understanding of formative assessment
5.3.1 Mathematics teacher educators’ definition of formative assessment
Many definitions have been proposed by researchers as to what makes assessment formative.
Havnes, Smith, Dysthe, and Ludvigsen (2012) argue that the misunderstanding and superficial implementation of FA in the classroom is a result of the wide range of inconsistent definitions.
Therefore, understanding how teacher educators defined FA was important to help clarify the main characteristics that are important to its implementation. Teacher educators were asked to share their understanding of FA and how different it is from summative assessment. The researcher was of the view that teacher educators’ responses will help in determining whether they understood the meaning of FA, its purposes, and the practices of FA in their classroom.
5.3.1.1 Assessment an integral part of teaching
Cauley and McMillan (2010) pointed out that FA should be thought of as a set of characteristics that are present in varying degrees in any situation. Therefore, in trying to explore the meaning that MTEs ascribe to FA, the researcher looked out for key characteristics of FA in the participants' responses. All six participants shared their understanding of FA and its functions. Five teacher educators involved in this study delineated and articulated that they viewed FA as an ongoing, progressive activity which forms an integral part of teachers’ pedagogy. Emily and Peprah gave the following descriptions:
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Formative assessment is continuous, it is not a one short, so it can be done before your lesson to see where they are, it can be done in between your presentation to see if they follow what you are teaching, or it can be done … (Emily)
… is the assessment that you conduct as part of the progress of the teaching and learning (Peprah).
FA was also seen as an ongoing, daily classroom activity by Anani, and Wilson, another participating teacher educator, shared the same view:
Formative assessment is the day-to-day assessment of people's achievement, class assignment, quizzes, group work, project that one is done on a daily basis (Anani)
A comment was made by tying the definition of FA with the usage of its specific technique by the teacher during instruction. This was evident in Sekyi’s response:
… so, I see formative assessment as the questions you give during teaching. It could be that verbal questions, taking students' responses to give you a view of whether you are on track, …
This statement by Sekyi shows that in his understanding the form of assessment should align with the assessment strategy or technique. Cauley and McMillan (2010) argued that ongoing FA is conducted mainly through informal observations and oral questioning posed to students during the process of teaching and learning. Sekyi's response on FA therefore supports the position of (Cauley
& McMillan, 2010).
Based on the responses, it can be established that MTEs consider an assessment as formative when it forms part of an ongoing instruction that provides information about students' understanding.
This is in agreement with (Brink, 2017), who conceived that FA is an ongoing process and should not be viewed and seen as a single event.
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In contrast, one participant, Fordjour, observed differences between assessment and instruction.
Although it was not clearly stated, he remarked that FA is an assessment that is done after teaching, thereby separating assessment from teaching and learning. This is what Fordjour said:
Formative assessment is a form of assessment which is done after teaching a course or every topic …
In supporting Fordjour’s response Abell and Siegel (2011) conceived that assessment used primarily to see whether and what learning has occurred for students at a particular time, usually at the end of a unit of work or course, is called summative assessment. Based on his response, it can be said that Fordjour is missing the point of what constitutes FA.
Literature on assessment has shown that there are tensions and lack of clarity about the distinction between FA and summative assessment among researchers. For example, Taras (2009) argued that all assessments are summative in nature and that FA follows summative assessment and requires feedback, highlighting gaps for redress (Sadler, 1989; Taras, 2009). This means that(Taras, 2009) holds that FA is summative assessment plus feedback. Therefore, in order to establish whether teacher educators can distinguish between the two set of functions of assessment, they were also asked to share their views on the meaning of summative assessment. Data drawn from teacher educators’ interviews revealed that all six participants alluded that assessment organised at the end of an instructional period is summative. The participants’ understanding of assessment indicates that assessment plays only a marginal role in instruction and is isolated from the teaching and learning process. The respondents’ understanding of assessment was in line with Abell and Siegel (2011), as indicated in the literature, that summative assessment is assessment which usually occurs at the end of a unit of work or course. For example, Anani revealed that:
Summative is the overall assessment and it is done at the end of the year or at the end of the term. For example, West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and also end of semester examination. Summative assessment is conducted at the end of a learning period.
In a similarly manner Wilson stated that:
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Summative is done purely at the end of a programme. For instance, at the end of the semester we have the summative but for the formative it is before the end of the semester.
(Wilson)
Peprah and Fordjour commented as follows:
Summative is the final assessment. At the end of the semester or at the end of a unit, at the end of a course you assess the students for various reasons. (Peprah)
As for summative, it is done at the end of the course. It is like the total assessment. For example, with summative assessment one has to teach unit 1, 2, 3 up to the last units before assessing the students based on all the units for the whole course. (Fordjour)
In addition, Emily explained that summative assessment is an assessment which is conducted at a sitting and usually at the end of a semester or term. She also highlighted that the function of summative assessment is for promotion purposes:
Summative is one short or at the end of the semester or term for promotion. (Emily) It is evident that if assessment is done at the end of the semester or term, then the assessor cannot identify any gaps in instruction and close them. This means that unlike FA, students’
misconceptions and levels of understanding can only be seen or identified at the end of the course or semester. This standpoint of teacher educators on assessment affirms the world view that teachers conduct assessment at the end of the teaching process, with the intention of reporting students’ progress to parents, for qualification and for judging the effectiveness of teachers or schools and for ranking schools.
Black and Wiliam (1998a) argued that teachers lack clear understanding of the differences between FA and summative assessment. However, from the data there emerged a parallel view, where teacher educators believe assessment is formative or summative based on when they occur or are conducted in relation to their purposes. According to them, assessment is said to be formative when it is an ongoing activity that forms an integral part of teaching and occurs before, during and after teaching and learning with the primary aim of enhancing learning. This means that FA is designed to generate information about students’ performance, and based on that information students’ learning can be supported and the teaching modified (Black & Wiliam, 2009). In the case of summative assessment, teacher educators conceived that it is an assessment which occurs at the
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end of a learning period. It is used for grading, promoting, and measuring how much of the subject content the student has understood. It is worth noting that for them (teacher educators), FA supports learning while summative assessment is employed for instructional review and accountability purposes. According to teacher educators, it is not about the type/method of assessment used, it is about the time of administering that assessment which determines whether it is formative or summative.
This finding contradicts Black and Wiliam (1998a) early position that teachers lack understanding about the distinction between the formative function and summative function of assessment.
However, based on the teacher educators’ constructs, the researcher argues that not distinguishing methods of assessment suitable to be administered for formative purposes or summative purposes can lead to confusion in one’s understanding of FA.