Formative Assessmant in Practise / Barriers to Formative Assessment

Assessment for learning (aka Formative assessment)

We saw a video on successful mistakes in class. This was to emphasise the need to have no fear of failure and to encourage creativity. The relevance of this for our teaching is that a great deal of learning can be achieved through our mistakes and this is where formative feedback is vital.

The Benefits of Formative Assessment will include:
-better teaching
-better relationships with students
-more student engagement and motivation
-improved ‘learning skills’
-improved retention/attendance rates
-Improved academic achievement

Barriers to Formative Assessment

We were put into groups to discuss the barriers to formative assessment. Our group talked about

Time- marking written work and providing meaningful comments and giving one on one verbal feedback is time consuming

Student apprehension/fear of appearing foolish- Students may be reluctant to question or answer questions if they fear appearing foolish to their peers or lecturer

Motivation- of both student and teacher. If one or the other are not engaged or motivated then they will be reluctant to do any more than the bare minimum. Two of our group were college teachers and their experience was students became ‘Credit driven’ and wouldn’t engage with anything unless it ‘counted’.

Preconceptions- of students and teachers of what assessment is, was or should be and how formative assessment fits into that.

Perception of importance- If an assessment is not recorded or doesn’t count toward the summative grade then students may not try as hard thinking that it isn’t important. Therefore your assessment may be inaccurate showing a poorer result than may be true.