Introduction
It is said that learning is a continuous process which does not have a definite end. Every aspect of life involves learning something new or perfecting an already acquired skill. Learning institutions are characterized by interactions between students or learners and their teachers or educators. The passing of knowledge from a tutor to a learner seeks to ensure that the latter acquires the necessary skills from the former which will enable the learner to prosper in their career goals or future life. In trying to understand whether a student has understood a concept, tutors occasionally issue assessments based on the topics covered.
There are two types of assessments, formative and summative. Formative assessments allow for a tutor to gather ongoing feedback as they are issued at the end of a topic or a course. Formative assessments help both a tutor and a learner, in that, the tutor understands the lessons or topics which were not well understood by the learners (Nicol, "Macfarlane-Dick, 2006). Such feedback helps a tutor improve on his or her teaching skills to suit the learner. On the other hand, the learner gets to identify their strengths and weaknesses and this helps them improve their learning by perfecting their strengths and working on their weaknesses.
Viewpoint on Assessments
Assessments are viewed differently by students or learners. While it is true that some parents, learners, and even tutors peg so much importance on the grade or marks attained by a student from an assessment, it is the least point of concern. The aim of learning is to understand concepts; the necessary skills and knowledge which will help the learner advance in their career path and also better their future. To know whether students are well versed with the concepts taught in classrooms, tutors always issue assessments to examine their understating. However, the need to join certain institutions of higher learning and career paths pushes some students to focus more on their grades as opposed to how well they understand the topics. In addition, other learners have adopted the act of cheating in exams to attain the high grades to please both their parents and teachers and also secure slots in prestigious colleges. Formative assessments help eliminate all these behaviors. It benefits the teachers and the students as well.
Definition of Formative Assessment
Formative assessment refers to a learning technique where a student's learning progress is monitored by a tutor or instructor where feedback is gathered to help the instructor change his or her teaching methods to suit the students, In addition, the feedback helps a learner understand his or her weak and strong learning areas. Formative assessments do not have a benchmark or standard against which the learning progress of a student is compared.
Benefits of Formative Assessments
Formative assessments are the best technique to monitor how well a learner understands topics in school. To begin with, the technique helps to identify the areas that need work. Formative assessments do not involve direct answers to questions rather the questions are centered on the topics covered. For instance, a student may be asked to list down three take out points from the lesson or identify the main point of the lesson. Such questions help a student think and analyze the topics taught. It also allows the students to express themselves based on what they grasped as opposed to directly cramming definitions and explanations as written in their textbooks or other reading materials. This helps promote personalized learning experiences and mold self-regulated students (Cauley "McMillan, 2010). Feedback from the questions helps a tutor understand a student's strong areas and their weak points. After identifying this, the teacher then changes their teaching skills and approach to suit the needs of the students. That is, the educator tries to package the information in a manner that the student will understand. The ongoing feedback also allows educators to identify student's weak points immediately ensuring that the learning issue is handled before it gets out of hand.
Formative assessments promote students academic achievements by increasing their confidence and encouraging participation (Bennett, 2011). Students can speak out on their weak areas without the fear of being judged or called stupid. The assessment, therefore, increases student engagement and enhances their motivation.
Downsides of Formative Assessments
Even with the many benefits of using formative assessments, the technique has a downside to it. To begin with, educators need to be well trained to issue such assessments to ensure that the assessments issued have the same weight and for the tutors to correctly read the feedback from the students (Heritage, 2007). The fact that the assessment is issued at the end of the lesson may cause tutors to be worried about not completing the lesson. This may push some of the tutors to rush through the units so they can have enough time to assess the students. The disadvantage is that the students may fail to understand the lesson and this makes the whole assessment technique a failure.
Conclusion
In conclusion, formative assessment is the best approach to measure mastery. In addition, it is a more affordable approach to boost achievement as compared to increasing content knowledge of tutors or reducing class sizes to enhance the student-teacher relationship (Cauley "McMillan, 2010). However, tutors who use formative assessments need to understand the concept well such that they can balance between ensuring a student masters a concept and still have time to issue the formative assessment.
References
Bennett, R. E. (2011). Formative assessment: A critical review. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy " Practice, 18(1), 5-25.
Cauley, K. M., " McMillan, J. H. (2010). Formative assessment techniques to support student motivation and achievement. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 83(1), 1-6.
Heritage, M. (2007). Formative assessment: What do teachers need to know and do?. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(2), 140-14
Nicol, D. J., " Macfarlane‐Dick, D. (2006). Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in higher education, 31(2), 199-218.
