Abstract
This chapter describes the concept and aim of formative assessment, how it is realized in the classroom, and how teachers and students can use it to improve instruction and build student agency. Formative assessment has great potential to raise student achievement and instill, develop, and support metacognition in students, yet educators are often uncertain about methods and means of implementation. Findings from the learning sciences reveal flaws in the instructivist approach to instruction and support the use of formative assessment in a learner-centered, constructivist environment. However, instructionism persists, driven by cultural norms and undergirded by behaviorist theories of practice. Of those who have adopted formative assessment practices, some have distorted its use to conform to their pre-existing behaviorist theories about learners and learning, resulting in conformative assessment or “criteria compliance.” Others have adopted formative assessment as a disparate set of strategies stacked on top of an already bulging curriculum—diluting or negating its effectiveness. When implemented correctly in a learner-centered, constructivist environment however, it has great potential to equip and empower students in their own learning and raise student achievement, even on high-stakes, standardized tests.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Works Cited
Airasian, P. W. (1988). Measurement driven instruction: A closer look. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 7(4), 6–11.
Almqvist, C. F., Vinge, J., Vakeva, L., & Zanden, O. (2017). Assessment as learning in music education: The risk of “criteria compliance” replacing “learning” in the Scandinavian countries. Research Studies in Music Education, 39(1), 3–18.
Andersson, C., & Palm, T. (2017). The impact of formative assessment on student achievement: A study of the effects of changes to classroom practice after a comprehensive professional development programme. Learning & Instruction, 49, 92–102.
Aronson, J., Fried, C., & Good, C. (2002). Reducing the effects of stereotype threat on African American college students by shaping theories of intelligence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(2), 113.
Bennett, R. E. (2011). Formative assessment: A critical review. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 18(1), 5–25.
Bergan, J. R., Sladeczek, I. E., Schwarz, R. D., & Smith, A. N. (1991). Effects of a measurement and planning system on kindergartners’ cognitive development and educational programming. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 29, 181–191.
Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., & Wiliam, D. (2002). Working inside the black box. London: nferNelson Publishing Company.
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998a). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7–75.
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998b). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. London: nferNelson Publishing Company.
Box, C., Dabbs, J., & Skoog, G. (2015). A case study of teacher personal practice assessment theories and complexities of implementing formative assessment. American Educational Research Journal – Teaching, Learning and Human Development, 52(5), 956–983.
Box, M. C. (2008). Formative assessment: Patterns, personal practice assessment theories, and impact on student achievement and motivation in science (PhD dissertation), Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX.
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Brown, G., & Hirschfeld, G. (2007). Students’ conceptions of assessment and mathematic: Self-regulation raises achievement. Australian Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, 7, 63–74.
Butler, R. (1988). Enhancing and undermining intrinsic motivation: The effects of task-involving and ego-involving evaluation on interest and performance. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 58, 1–14.
Chappuis, J. (2005). Helping students understand assessment. Educational Leadership, 63(3), 39–43.
Chappuis, J. (2015). Seven strategies of assessment for learning (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Education.
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2008). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques to developing grounded theory (3rd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage.
Cuban, L. (2007). Hugging the middle: Teaching in an era of testing and accountability, 1980–2005. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 15, 1.
Davis, D., & Neitzel, C. (2011). A self-regulated learning perspective on middle grades classroom assessment. Journal of Educational Research, 104(3), 202.
Davis, G. E., & McGowen, M. A. (2007). Formative feedback and the mindful teaching of mathematics. Australian Senior Mathematics Journal, 21(1), 19–29.
Draganski, B., Gaser, C., Busch, V., Schuierer, G., Bogdahn, U., & May, A. (2004). Neuroplasticity: Changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature, 427(6972), 311–312.
Dunn, K. E., & Mulvenon, S. W. (2009). A critical review of research on formative assessment: The limited scientific evidence of the impact of formative assessment in education. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 14(7), 1–11.
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books.
Fitzgerald, C. J., & Laurian-Fitzgerald, S. (2016). Helping students enhance their grit and growth mindsets. Journal Plus Education, 14, 52–67.
Fontana, D., & Fernandes, M. (1994). Improvements in mathematics performance as a consequence of self-assessment in Portuguese primary school pupils. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 64, 407–417.
Fox-Turnbull, W. (2006). The influences of teacher knowledge and authentic formative assessment on student learning in technology education. International Journal of Technology & Design Education, 16(1), 53–77.
Frederiksen, J. R., & Collins, A. (1989). A systems approach to educational testing. Educational Researcher, 18(9), 27.
Frederiksen, J. R., & White, B. Y. (1997). Reflective assessment of students’ research within an inquiry-based middle school science curriculum. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the AERA, Chicago.
Furtak, E. M. (2005). Formative assessment in K-8 science education: A conceptual review. Commissioned paper by the National Research Council for Science Learning K-8 Consensus Study.
Gülpinar, M. A. (2005). The principles of brain-based learning and constructivist models in education. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 5(2), 299–306.
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York: Routledge.
Ilić, M., & Bojović, Ž. (2016). Teachers’ folk pedagogies. Journal of Arts and Humanities, 5(9), 41–52.
Klenowski, V. (2009). Assessment for learning revisited: An Asia-Pacific perspective. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 16(3), 263–268.
Klute, M., Apthorp, H., Harlacher, J., & Reale, M. (2017). Formative assessment and elementary school student academic achievement: A review of the evidence. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/central/pdf/REL_2017259.pdf
Lamar, S., & Lodge, J. (2014). Making sense of how I learn: Metacognitive capital and the first year university student. International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 5(1), 93–105.
Latham, G. P., & Brown, T. C. (2006). The effect of learning vs. outcome goals on self-efficacy, satisfaction and performance in an MBA program. Applied Psychology, 55(4), 606–623.
Li, H. (2016). How is formative assessment related to students’ reading achievement? Findings from PISA 2009. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 23(4), 473–494.
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2006). New directions in goal-setting theory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(5), 265–268.
Ludvik, M. J. B. (Ed.). (2016). The neuroscience of learning and development: Enhancing creativity, compassion, critical thinking, and peace in higher education. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Maguire, E. A., Woollett, K., & Spiers, H. J. (2006). London taxi drivers and bus drivers: A structural MRI and neuropsychological analysis. Hippocampus, 16(12), 1091–1101.
Marshall, B., & Jane Drummond, M. (2006). How teachers engage with assessment for learning: Lessons from the classroom. Research Papers in Education, 21(2), 133–149.
McGuire, S. Y. (2015). Teach students how to learn: Strategies you can incorporate into any course to improve student metacognition, study skills, and motivation. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC.
McManus, S. (2008). Attributes of effective formative assessment. Retrieved from Washington, DC: http://www.ccsso.org/Documents/2008/Attributes_of_Effective_2008.pdf
Meisels, S., Atkins-Burnett, S., Xue, Y., Nicholson, J., Bickel, D. D., & Son, S.-H. (2003). Creating a system of accountability: The impact of instructional assessment on elementary children’s achievement test scores. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 11(6), 9.
Messick, S. (1994). The interplay of evidence and consequences in the validation of performance assessments. Educational Researcher, 23(2), 13.
Mytkowicz, P., Goss, D., & Steinberg, B. (2014). Assessing metacognition as a learning outcome in a postsecondary strategic learning course. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 27(1), 51–62.
Nilson, L. (2013). Creating self-regulated learners: Strategies to strengthen students’ self-awareness and learning skills. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Passmore, C., & Stewart, J. (2006). Evolving ideas: Assessment in an evolution course. In M. McMahon, P. Simmons, R. Sommers, D. DeBaets, & F. Crawley (Eds.), Assessment in science: Practical experiences and education research. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.
Popham, J. (2008). Transformative assessment. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Rodriguez, M. C. (2004). The role of classroom assessment in student performance on TIMSS. Applied Measurement in Education, 17(1), 1–24.
Roschelle, J. (1992). Learning by collaborating: Convergent conceptual change. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2(3), 235–276.
Ruiz-Primo, M. A., & Furtak, E. M. (2007). Exploring teachers’ informal formative assessment practices and students’ understanding in the context of scientific inquiry. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 44(1), 57–84.
Sawyer, R. K. (Ed.). (2006). The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (1st ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Sawyer, R. K. (Ed.). (2014). The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Schoenfeld, A. H. (2011). How we think: A theory of goal-oriented decision making and its educational applications. New York: Routledge.
Schraw, G., & Dennison, R. S. (1994). Assessing metacognitive awareness. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 19(4), 460.
Schunk, D. H. (1996). Goal and self-evaluative influences during children’s cognitive skill learning. American Educational Research Journal, 33, 359–382.
Shuichi, N. (2016). The possibilities and limitations of assessment for learning: Exploring the theory of formative assessment and the notion of “closing the learning gap”. Educational Studies in Japan: International Yearbook, 10, 79–91.
Sousa, D. A. (2006). How the brain learns (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Stiggins, R., & Chappuis, J. (2005). Using student-involved classroom assessment to close achievement gaps. Theory into Practice, 44(1), 11–18.
Swaffield, S. (2011). Getting to the heart of authentic assessment for learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 18(4), 433–449.
Tanner, K. D. (2012). Promoting student metacognition. CBE – Life Sciences Education, 11(2), 113–120.
Torrance, H. (2007). Assessment as learning? How the use of explicit learning objectives, assessment criteria and feedback in post-secondary education training can come to dominate learning. Assessment in Education, 14(3), 281–294.
Torrance, H. (2012). Formative assessment at the crossroads: Conformative, deformative and transformative assessment. Oxford Review of Education, 38(3), 323–342.
Tovar-Moll, F., & Lent, R. (2016). The various forms of neuroplasticity: Biological bases of learning and teaching. Prospects (00331538), 46(2), 199–213.
Weurlander, M., Söderberg, M., Scheja, M., Hult, H., & Wernerson, A. (2012). Exploring formative assessment as a tool for learning: Students’ experiences of different methods of formative assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 37(6), 747–760.
Whiting, B., Van Burgh, J. W., & Render, G. F. (1995). Mastery learning in the classroom. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the AERA, San Francisco.
Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded formative assessment. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Wiliam, D., Lee, C., Harrison, C., & Black, P. (2004). Teachers developing assessment for learning: Impact on student achievement. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 11(1), 49–65.
Wilson, M., & Sloane, K. (2000). From principles to practice: An embedded assessment system. Applied Measurement in Education, 13(2), 181–208.
Young, A., & Fry, J. D. (2008). Metacognitive awareness and academic achievement in college students. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 8(2), 1–10.
Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory into Practice, 41(2), 64–70.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Box, C. (2019). The Power of Formative Assessment. In: Formative Assessment in United States Classrooms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03092-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03092-6_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03091-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03092-6
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)