Formative Assessment
It’s not the quiz; it’s what happens next.
Formative assessment is assessment whose evidence about learning is actually used, by teachers, learners or peers, to decide what to do next in teaching and learning.
A teacher in Đà Nẵng asks her class to write one sentence with since on mini-whiteboards. In seconds she sees that half the room has written since three years, so she changes the next ten minutes of her lesson. That decision, not the whiteboard, is what makes the moment formative.
The terms formative and summative come from Michael Scriven’s 1967 work on curriculum evaluation, and Benjamin Bloom soon applied them to the assessment of students. Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (1998) made the idea famous with a major review arguing that strengthening everyday classroom assessment can raise achievement. In their later theory, assessment is formative assessment when teachers, learners or peers gather, interpret and use evidence about learning to decide on next steps (Black & Wiliam, 2009). Royce Sadler (1989) explained why learners must be part of this. To improve, they need to grasp the standard they are aiming at, compare their own work with it, and act to close the gap.
The evidence is more contested than the slogans. Black and Wiliam’s widely quoted effect sizes of 0.4 to 0.7 came from a review of very varied studies, not a formal meta-analysis. Kingston and Nash (2011) estimated a much smaller average of about 0.2, though critics in turn questioned their methods. Bennett (2011) argued that loose definitions make all such claims hard to judge.
In language classrooms, much assessment happens inside talk, as teachers prompt, recast and scaffold, and Rea-Dickins (2001) showed how intricate these processes are. The test of formative assessment is simple: did anyone change what they did?
In actionEvidence, then a decision
- T
- Boards up! ... OK, lots of since three years. Hmm.
- T
- Which one needs a point in time, since or for?
- S1
- Since. Since 2020!
- T
- Good. Partners, check each other’s boards and fix them. Then I’ll look again.
An invented exchange. The teacher reads the evidence, adjusts the lesson, and turns learners into resources for each other before checking again.
In the classroom
- 1
Use all-student response tools such as mini-whiteboards or answer cards, and decide in advance what you will do if most answers are wrong.
- 2
Share success criteria for a speaking or writing task with a model, then have pairs check a draft against them before you give feedback.
- 3
Return written work with comments but no grade, and require one specific revision, so feedback leads to action rather than a glance at the mark.
Myth and reality
Formative assessment means giving more frequent tests or quizzes.
No test is formative in itself; what matters is whether the evidence it yields is used to adjust teaching and learning, and frequent quizzes whose results change nothing are not formative.
Reflect
When did evidence from your students last make you change a lesson while you were still teaching it, and what made that change possible?
Worth a minute before your next lesson, or a conversation in the staffroom.
SourcesChecked against Crossref and library records
Scriven (1967) coined formative and summative for curriculum evaluation; Bloom extended them to student assessment. Sadler (1989) theorised the learner’s role, and Black and Wiliam’s 1998 review brought formative assessment to the attention of researchers, teachers and policymakers.
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7–74.
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the theory of formative assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1), 5–31.
The authors’ own theory: a working definition and five key strategies, from clarifying learning intentions to making learners owners of their learning.
Sadler, D. R. (1989). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science, 18(2), 119–144.
The classic argument that feedback only works when learners understand the standard and can close the gap themselves.
Bennett, R. E. (2011). Formative assessment: A critical review. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 18(1), 5–25.
A sympathetic but sharp critique of loose definitions and overstated effect sizes.
Kingston, N., & Nash, B. (2011). Formative assessment: A meta-analysis and a call for research. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 30(4), 28–37.
A meta-analysis that found much smaller average effects than often claimed, and sparked a lively methodological debate.
Rea-Dickins, P. (2001). Mirror, mirror on the wall: Identifying processes of classroom assessment. Language Testing, 18(4), 429–462.
A close look at how teachers of English as an additional language actually assess learners in the flow of classroom work.
ConnectionsSee it in the graph
- Assessment Literacynot yet writtenUsing assessment formatively is a core part of teachers’ assessment literacy.
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