Formative & Summative Assessment Comparison
Author: Nicole Marie Sartin
Ashford University, Clinton Ohio
EDU 645: Learning & Assessment for the 21st Century
Instructor: Dr. Bridget Griggs
Formative assessment is a range of formal and informal assessment procedures employed by teachers during the learning process in order to modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment. (2013) Furthermore, formative assessments typically involve qualitative feedback rather than scores of content and performance for both the teacher and the student. The purpose of this assessment is to support learning during the learning process. Specifically, formative assessments are meant to guide the teachers’ decision making about future instruction while providing useful feedback to the students so that they are able to make improvements. For example, a teacher may ask her students to write down, in a brainstorm activity, all they know about how hot-air balloons so that she can discover what students already know about the area of science that she is intending to teach.
In contrast, summative assessments are conducted after a unit or certain time period to determine how much learning has taken place. A summative assessment aims to summarize learning up to a specific point. Typically, upon completion of a unit of work, the learner sits for a test and the teacher marks the test and assigns a score. These tests may also be used for diagnostic assessment to identify any weaknesses and then build on that using formative assessment. Teachers may use this test to examine whether or not the learners were able to learn what they were supposed to learn after instruction. Summative assessment does not bother to assess "how they did," but more importantly, by looking at how the learners performed, it provides information as to whether the instructor teaches what they were supposed to teach.
Formative assessment is typically contrasted with summative assessment. The former supports teachers and students in decision-making during educational and learning processes, while the latter occurs at the end of a learning unit and determines if the content being taught was retained.
Reference
Kubiszyn, T. & Borich, G. (2013). Educational testing & measurement: Classroom application and practice (10th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
