C-PAD Shares #5, January 2023
Featured Theme: Formative Assessment
Right about now, you are probably wondering “what on earth is formative assessment?” This bit of educational jargon refers to “a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course.”1 Formative assessment is contrasted with the more familiar summative assessment, which evaluates student achievement (exams, research papers, major assignments, etc.). The two types differ by purpose: formative assessment aims to inform in-process teaching and learning modifications to help students improve their learning.
Daydreaming or Deep in Thought? Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Participation
By Carolyn Ives, curriculum planning and development coordinator for the Centre for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence at MacEwan University, Canada
Reading length—4 minutes
In this Faculty Focus article from 2014, Ives points to the dilemma many instructors face in trying to increase student participation in their classes: on the one hand, anything that serves to heighten student engagement seems desirable, but on the other hand, observable activity does not necessarily correlate with stronger engagement. Furthermore, some students may be genuinely engaged, but in a less overt way.
How do you “observe” active engagement? How do you foster it? How do you measure it? While several strategies used in concert provide the best answer, Ives states that “the most useful method I have found to evaluate student participation is the inclusion of formative assessment techniques in my classes.”2
Read on to learn what these techniques are, how they are graded, and what benefits they provide to both students and instructor.
Harnessing the Student Voice: Why Student-centered Teaching and Learning Starts with Formative Assessment
Juli S. Charkes, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Mercy College
Reading length—4 minutes
Perhaps you can relate to the lament of an experienced faculty member who seemingly had tried everything to stimulate increased enthusiasm and engagement in her students: “If only I knew what they needed.” Mercy College’s Center for Teaching and Learning had a ready reply: ask the students directly about their learning experience by applying a formative assessment tool.
The Center’s formative assessment initiative has succeeded in increasing faculty adoption of formative assessment techniques, which emphasize inclusion, enhance metacognition, and support faculty satisfaction. Asked to evaluate the impact of the initiative, 88% of participating faculty reported that they found it helpful or very helpful to have access to student formative assessment data. More than 80% indicated their intent to implement new teaching techniques based on formative assessment feedback.
20 Formative Assessment Examples To Use In Your College Classroom
Written by Top Hat staff for the Top Hat Teaching Tips blog
Reminder: Penn State does license Top Hat, which integrates with Canvas or may be used separately. See our Top Hat site for more information.
These assessment approaches are not Top Hat-specific, though Top Hat may be used for several of them (see the “tools you can use to run formative assessments” section). The twenty examples are organized under the following categories:
- Assessing course-related skills and knowledge
- Developing critical thinking and analysis skills
- Encouraging students to think creatively
- Enhancing problem-solving skills
- Assessing student performance and application abilities
- Understanding student self-awareness, attitudes and values
- Understanding student learning behaviors, strategies and skills
- Assessing student reactions to learning
Next month, we will share the flip side of the assessment coin: summative assessment.
- Formative Assessment (4/29/2014) The Glossary of Education Reform. Available at: https://www.edglossary.org/formative-assessment/ (Accessed: December 14, 2022).
- Daydreaming or Deep in Thought? Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Participation (3/24/2014) Faculty Focus. Available at: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/daydreaming-deep-thought-using-formative-assessment-evaluate-student-participation/ (Accessed: December 14, 2022).