Formative assessments are purposeful educational components that are implemented to gather evidence of learning, as well as keep instructors informed with what students actually know or do not know. The process can aid students in gaining a greater understanding in the various subject areas that they may be interested in, which makes learning more meaningful for them. It is used to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. In other words, formative assessments can be used by students to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and areas that may need work, and by instructors to identify where students are struggling to address these problems immediately.

The flexible outcomes of formative assessments provide helpful information that can then be used by teachers to strategically plan future instruction accordingly. It is important to look at formative assessment as a continuous practice between teachers and students as they seek to remain on task with their educational goals, periodically gauging how effective they have been in achieving their goals, and taking progressive steps toward reaching these goals.

Instructors can create formative assessments to improve their classroom instruction with various techniques such as open-ended quizzes, tests, and to assess their students learning outcomes. Engaging students through their participation in surveys and polls is a quick way to evaluate and collect feedback. This type of formative assessment allows student voices to be heard, empowering them as valuable members of the classroom whose ideas help to shape future plans of action while fostering their overall passion for learning.

For more information, refer to https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/what-are-formative-assessments-and-why-should-we-use-them/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxW7mk1BGvQ.

References

Crooks, T. (2001). "The Validity of Formative Assessments". British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Leeds, September 13–15, 2001.

Huhta, Ari (2010). "Diagnostic and Formative Assessment". In Spolsky, Bernard; Hult, Francis M. (eds.). The Handbook of Educational Linguistics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. pp. 469–482.

Shepard, Lorrie A. (2005). "Formative assessment: Caveat emptor" (PDF). ETS Invitational Conference The Future of Assessment: Shaping Teaching and Learning, New York, October 10–11, 2005. Retrieved 25 August 2011.