Examination of Formative, Summative, and Self-Assessments

Introduction

Assessments have a long and storied history of use within academia. There are pros and cons to their use; however, they are valid and appropriate for assessing learners, educators, performance, and learning across the educational spectrum. This paper examines the formative, summative, and self-assessment tools, and their purpose in the educational setting.

Formative Assessment

Purpose

Jenkins (2010) recognized formative assessments as a tool that aims to shape the effectiveness and improve the learning experience by first providing ideas and concepts to understand better what they are doing (Yorke, 2003; Covic and Jones, 2008). This information is valuable to the learner because it is timely, specific, relevant, clearly focused feedback. The formative approach improves critical dialogs between the educator and the learner to ensure the appropriate learning and teaching styles are deployed. Houston et al. (2017) captured that formative assessment results visualize the learner's future learning potential rather than waiting for the learning to occur to assess the effects. Lookadoo et al. (2017) recognized that the formative assessment is typically initiated during the instruction to enhance cognitive and motivational support for learning and achievement.

Houston et al. (2017) understood that completing the formative process occurs only when the learner has appropriately applied the feedback to their performance, ability to apply judgment to the quality of their performance, and their ability to self-regulate future learning opportunities. Dixson et al. (2016) cited Wiggins' (1998) assertion that the formative assessment primarily aims to educate and improve the learner's performance, not solely for auditing performance. Black & William (2010) defined formative assessments as activities that allow learners and educators to assess themselves and the feedback to be used to modify their collective teaching and learning activities.

Summative Assessment

Purpose

Jenkins (2010) highlighted; summative assessments are essential to establishing the learning abilities of the learner. This is important because these results potentially drive the program-focused areas of study. Summative assessments are also tools used to generate critical feedback on the performance of the adult learner to increase their future work (Sadler 1998; Covic and Jones 2008). Houston et al. (2017) recognized summative assessments as tools utilized to document and communicate overall learner achievement at the end of the course. In this assessment, the results validate if learning occurred and is an indication of the worth or value of the completed activity. Dixon et al. (2016) cited the National Research Council's definition of summative assessments. These assessments capture what the student learned throughout the process. This knowledge is compared against the predetermined standards for the lesson.

The Common Core Standards (2014) highlighted that the summative assessment goals are to accurately describe student achievement and growth of student learning, provide a valid, reliable, and fair measurement of knowledge attainment, skill achievement, and the college/career readiness of the learner. The summative assessments can make or break the adult learning process because they are conducted at the end of the learning cycle, making their successful completion tied directly to the learner's grade. Lookadoo et al. (2017) recognized that the summative assessment process typically takes the form of an examination to evaluate the learner's new knowledge. Doing this at the end allows the educators to measure the learning and track the learner's progress.

Self-Assessments

Purpose

Self-assessments (SA)s affords the adult learner and educators the ability to examine themselves, their progress and determine how much fathered there is to go in their goal attainment. SAs require members to critically evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and challenge members to own their growth and development (Thompson, 2021). SAs are a powerful and self-reflective tool for the educator or the adult learner to open constructive communication, determine what has been achieved n their development, and understand better the extent of their current abilities for improvement. SAs aid the learner in understanding their knowledge levels, provide the member with specific and actionable feedback, and promote self-centered learning. SAs offer the student a much deeper learning opportunity because the lesson and the task of taking and understanding the assessment drive knowledge of the subject and the concepts presented.

McMillan & Hearn (2020) defined self-assessments as the process used to monitor, evaluate the learners thinking and behaviors during the learning process and can identify the critical strategies needed to improve the understanding and skills of adult learners. Why? Because SAs forces members to be cognizant of their weaknesses while offering insight through critical reflection towards improvement (PennState, 2017). SAs are also essential to understanding and helping adult learners identify positive, harmful, or ineffective ways of reacting.

Conclusion

???????????Assessments provide the necessary data for educational decision-making in the adult education space. These assessments are critical to instructional design, curriculum mapping, and placement. The assessment used together will provide a more accurate and valid picture if implemented appropriately and timely. Derrell (2015) validated the importance of various types of evaluation because each satisfies specific purposes for the institution. These tools can be applied at many levels within the educational paths' classroom-based, school-wide, and district-wide (Derrell, 2015). Why? Because they provide the instructor and the learner the ability to monitor knowledge, proficiency, success, overall progress in the achievement of learning objectives before and after the learning period.

References

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2010). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(1), 81 – 90. doi:10.1177/ 003172171009200119.

Common core state standards initiative: Preparing America's students for college & career. (2014).

Covic, T., and Jones, M. 2008. Is the essay resubmission option a formative or summative assessment and does it matter as long as the grades improve? Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 33, no. 1: 75–85.

Dixson, D., & Worrell, F. (2016). Formative and summative assessment in the classroom. Theory into Practice, 55(2), 153-159. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2016.1148989

Houston, D., Thompson, J., & Flinders University. (2017). Blending formative and summative assessment in a capstone subject : 'it's not your tools, it's how you use them'. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 14(3), 5-18. https://doi.org/10.53761/1.14.3.2

Jenkins, J. (2010). A multi-faceted formative assessment approach: Better recognizing the learning needs of students. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(5), 565-576. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930903243059

Lookadoo, K., Bostwick, E., Ralston, R., Elizondo, F., Wilson, S., Shaw, T., & Jensen, M. (2017). "I forgot I Wasn't saving the world": The use of formative and summative assessment in instructional video games for undergraduate biology. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 26(6), 597-612. doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10956-017-9701-5

McMillan, J., Hearn, J. (2020). Student self-assessment: The key to stronger student motivation and higher achievement. Retrieved from https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrXkp2g1kRiMdAA6CwPxQt.;_ylu=Y29sbwNncTEEcG9zAzcEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Ny/RV=2/RE=1648707361/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2ffiles.eric.ed.gov%2ffulltext%2fEJ815370.pdf/RK=2/RS=L2MqFu_e1G5QIVOx.GdHBwUAd48-

Penn State. (2017). Self-assessment and its benefits. Retrieved from https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2017/01/24/self-assessment-and-its-benefits/

Sadler, D. (1998). Formative assessment: Revisiting the territory. Assessment in Education 5, no. 1: 77–84

Thompson, M. (2021). Self-evaluation and assessments. Retrieved from https://wethrive.net/blog/self-evaluation-and-assessment/

Yorke, M. (2003). Formative assessment in higher education: Moves towards theory and the enhancement of pedagogic practice. Higher Education 45: 477–501

?

?