Formative and Summative Assessments

Imagine yourself as a student again. Now imagine you are taking a test. What feelings come to mind? It is unlikely that test-taking was a stress-free experience for most people. I can recall a chemistry class where the teacher would pass back our tests to the first person in the row, who would then pass the stack backward. If the test was not stressful enough, now my peers were able to see my score. As it just so happens, I am back in school again, and I am studying assessment methods. I am interested in determining what teachers can do to improve the assessment experience for students. Join me as I explore two different (but complementary) assessment methods.

Formative Assessment

I will be honest. My educational experience seems very traditional. By that, I mean that I can recall more summative assessments than formative. Of course, there were quizzes along the way, but they were never packaged by my teachers to explain the purpose. It may be helpful at this point to explain what formative assessments are and their purpose. Gezer et al. (2021) explained that formative assessments are instruments for learning. Ismail et al. (2022) explained that formative assessments are often frequent and interactive experiences that occur during the learning process. The times when I can recall effective formative assessments were related to the laboratory experiments. These were very informal and were opportunities where students could get feedback on the procedures as we attempted them.

Examining this now from an educator’s perspective, it is important to realize the duality of the assessment process, especially since formative assessment is “for” learning. As Ismail et al. (2022) discussed, it is not uncommon for educators to miss out on the potential for formative assessment to impact the teaching process. The reality is that a quiz (or any other formative assessment) can be just as much about assessing our teaching as it is about assessing student learning.

Summative Assessment

As I mentioned earlier, I am much more familiar with summative assessments. Summative assessments are assessments “of” learning rather than “for” learning (Gezer et al., 2021). Typically, summative assessments are often formal, cumulative, and situated at the end of a unit or course. In my experience, I think back to my Calculus II course, where there were two grades in the entire term: one midterm and one final exam. This made the assessments feel very high-stakes and impacted my test anxiety (Ismail et al., 2022).

Considering the use of summative assessments as a teacher, I can now appreciate that while they are evaluating student learning, they do not have to only fit that purpose. It is possible to leverage summative assessments while allowing them to be useful for students to adapt and improve. My son’s math teacher allows them to stay after school to complete re-takes for partial credit. While the boost to their score may be the “carrot,” the teacher knows that it is also helping them reach mastery, which is the ultimate goal. If assessments are administered in a learning management system, it is possible to create assessments that offer feedback to students at a granular level.

Conclusion

Assessments are part of a continuous learning journey. As educators, we can select our assessment methods in a way that considers our learners and their anxiety. We must remember that assessment is not just for the learner. Even if we rely on summative assessments, educators can reflect on the outcomes to inform changes to our course design and instructional practices.