Formative assessment

Often referred to as assessment for learning, formative assessment:

...refers to all those activities undertaken by teachers, and by the students in assessing themselves, which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. Such assessments become formative when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet the needs.

Black and Wiliam (1998)

Key elements of formative assessment include:

• The identification by teachers and learners of learning goals, intentions or outcomes and criteria for achieving these.
• Rich conversations between teachers and students that continually build and go deeper.
• The provision of effective, timely feedback to enable students to advance their learning.
• The active involvement of students in their own learning.
• Teachers responding to identified learning needs and strengths by modifying their teaching approach(es).

The following formative assessment resources include online presentations from a range of experts.

An introduction to formative assessment: Online workshop
This PowerPoint presentation in English introduces formative assessment. It includes references to research into Māori student achievement.
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/atol_online/ppt/aromatawai-
presentation.ppt (PowerPoint, 167KB)

An Introduction to Formative Assessment For Secondary School Teachers
Use this PowerPoint presentation as a focus for professional development in formative assessment and to support AtoL in-depth programmes in secondary schools. (PowerPoint, 149KB)

Exploring Formative Assessment: Assessment for learning
The PowerPoint tutorial introduces formative assessment, and can be used to support AtoL professional learning in schools. (PowerPoint, 150KB)

Planning for Formative Assessment
This PowerPoint tutorial offers suggestions for sharing information about learning outcomes/intentions and achievement/success criteria with students. (PowerPoint, 1.1MB)

Teacher-Student Conversations that Promote Learning
This presentation clarifies the purpose and value of questions in classroom dialogue, and explores the role that conversations can play in promoting and enhancing learning. Strategies that promote learning conversations are identified through a combination of readings and activities.(PowerPoint 85KB)

Giving Quality Feedback
Use this online workshop to update, review and reflect on teacher/student interactions in the classroom and to support in-depth AtoL programmes in schools. (PowerPoint, 336KB)

Quality teaching and the implications for teaching and learning
PowerPoint presentation based on Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schools: Best Evidence Synthesis by Adrienne Alton-Lee (2003), suitable for teachers and AtoL faciltators to focus on professional development in assessment. It includes the executive summary of Alton-Lee's work, with a summary of the ten characteristics of quality teaching.
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/atol_online/ppt/best_evidence.ppt (PowerPoint, 137KB)

Notable Quotes on Formative Feedback
This summary of recent research literature could be used as a staff discussion exercise. (Word, 57KB)

Formative assessment: practical classroom strategies
Edited transcript of an interview with UK assessment expert Shirley Clarke, author of Targeting Assessment in the Primary Classroom; Unlocking Formative Assessment; and Enriching Feedback in the Classroom.

For more information refer to the Online Resources and Readings and Research section on the right hand side.

Assessment tools
Assessment tools search
asTTle
e-asTTle
Exemplars
Self/Peer assessment