Effective Assessment Strategies: Formative vs. Summative
A. Summative Assessment
Summative assessment is conducted at the end of the teaching-learning process to verify student learning outcomes. It measures results against terminal objectives, assigning a grade or placement on a quantitative scale to rank and certify student learning.
B. Formative Assessment
Formative assessment occurs during the teaching and learning process to monitor progress, identify student difficulties and successes, and inform stakeholders to regulate the educational process. Its functions include: providing information to stakeholders; offering timely feedback on student learning for intervention and adjustment of teaching strategies; and regulating teaching strategies to address student difficulties and learning patterns.
Formative assessment involves continuous and systematic use of various tools to gather information appropriate to diverse learning styles and contexts. Its purpose is to adapt teaching to individual learning differences. The teacher is responsible for formative assessment, which can occur at different times: proactively at the beginning of a task, interactively throughout the learning process, or retroactively after a learning sequence.
C. Differences Between Summative and Formative Assessment
An evaluation task typically involves a task assigned by the teacher with specific expectations for successful completion. The student produces a product, and the assessment measures the closeness between the desired and produced outcomes. It is summative if the information is used for extrinsic goals like grade promotion. It is formative if the information is used to improve the teaching and learning process. The key distinction lies in the purpose of the assessment, not the instruments, actors, or timing.
D. Error Approach in Formative Assessment
Formative assessment interprets the gap between expected and achieved outcomes (the error). This occurs through communication, either face-to-face dialogue or written annotations. The quality of this evaluative feedback is crucial for effective communication between students and teachers. However, not all evaluative feedback ensures regulatory action. If the feedback is telegraphic, prophetic of disaster, or places blame, it will not be effective. Encouraging and mobilizing dialogue is more useful. Effective written evaluative feedback, according to Santos (2003b), should:
- Be clear and understandable to the student.
- Provide clues for future action.
- Encourage the student to reconsider their answer.
- Avoid directly correcting the error, allowing the student to identify and rectify it for more durable learning.
- Identify what is done well to build confidence and conscious recognition of knowledge.
E. Assessing Competence
- Involves observing students directly or indirectly, carrying out activities as close as possible to authentic situations. This uses a set of tools to collect evidence about the development (partial or general) of student skills or their demonstration in a situation. The forms and methods of assessment must reflect student learning achievements and results, as well as their commitment (motivation, attitude, etc.). Importantly, the different forms of assessment should relate to what was most important in the formal and actual curriculum, on what was taught and learned, according to the way it was, and still being taken into account as part of the teaching and learning process.