Basic concepts in language assessment
Formative and summative assessment
Esther Gómez Morales, Elizabeth Us Grajales, Ana María Elisa Diaz de la Garza,
Beatriz De Ibarrola y Nicolin, Paul Us Grajales, Irma Dolores Núñez y Bodegas, et
al.
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Gómez Morales, Esther, Elizabeth Us Grajales, Ana María Elisa
Diaz de la Garza, Beatriz De Ibarrola y Nicolin, Paul Us
Grajales, Irma Dolores Núñez y Bodegas, et al. (2009).
Formative and summative assessment. In A guide book
for assessing learning (pp 34-40). México: Edicionez Ruz.
1.6.2 FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Assessment can be done at various times throughout a program. A comprehensive
assessment plan will include formative and summative assessment; although
assessment can take many forms, it is useful to separate each process into two
categories: formative and summative.
Tummons (2005:31-32) considers formative assessment as “the takes place during
the course or programme of study, as an integral part of the learning process […] it
is often informal […] carried out by teachers and trainers while teaching and
training [… and] defined as a assessment for learning “Formative assessment is
often done at the beginning or during a program, thus providing the opportunity for
immediate evidence for students learning in a particular course on a particular
point in a program. Formative assessment is an integral part of effective teaching
and learning that is commonly applied during the whole course. Likewise, William
and Black (cited in Tanner and Jones, 2005:43) argue that “thigh quality formative
assessment has a powerful impact on learning.” However, the Qualifications and
Curriculum Authority, QCA (2001) agree that effective formative assessment
represents a key of strategy for raising standards. They recommend that “formative
assessment or assessment for learning must:
• Be embedded in the teaching and learning process of which it is an
essential part
• Share learning goals with pupils
• Help pupils to know and to recognized standards to aim for
• Provide feedback which lead pupils to identify what they should do next to
improve
• Have a commitment that every pupil can improve
• Involve both teacher and pupil reviewing and reflecting on pupils’
performance and progress
• Involve pupils in self-assessment
On the other hand, summative assessment is a process that generally takes place
at the end of a stage or task and summarizes the content of learning that has taken
place. It is a much more rigid from of assessment.
According to Tummons (2005: 39)
“Summative assessment is assessment of learning […] teachers […] use [it] to
discover what a student has achieved during the programme of study […] carried
out towards the end of a course. It is always a formal process and it is used to see
if students have acquired the skills, knowledge, behaviors or understanding that
the course sets out to provide them with.
Likewise Lethaby (2002: 10) says that "summative assessment reports on what
has been learned and takes place after the course of learning (or part of it). An
exam would be an example of summative assessment. A key indicator is the fact
that it is graded."
Rayment (2006:32, 33) in the table 5 below compares the two main forms of
assessment and how a teacher might use them in the classroom:
Table 5: Difference between formative and summative Rayment (2006:32, 33)
These two forms of assessment display their importance d in the classroom.
Teachers can work with both as they are relevant in encouraging students' learning
and to check students' progress.
1.6.3 The role of feedback
Making student’s work is not enough to achieve the benefits of assessment; the
feedback provided to the students regarding their marked work is also important.
According to Tummons (2005:75) "feedback describes the dialogue between the
teacher or trainer and the and it is an integral part of the assessment process."
Similarly, Tanner and Jones (2003: 59) agree that "feedback occurs in real time
two-way interaction as part of the teaching process”.
Undoubtedly, feedback plays an important part of assessment because it lets the
students know how well they are doing or it can show them why they have not
reached the required standards. Regarding this, Mohamed (2004:14) mentions that
"feedback should be targeted to enhance learning, and should concentrate on what
the student needs to improve. Avoid being overly judgmental, as this can be very
discouraging." As teachers, we need to be tactful students are human beings with
feelings and students can be hurt if feedback is destructive.
Tummons (2005:75) also comments that "positive feedback can be seen as a
reward for learning: confirmation from the tutor that the student has grasped a new
skill or mastered a body of knowledge" Both teachers and students can take
advantage of positive feedback. For teachers it allows them to measure their
teaching practices, and for students it helps them become aware of their progress.
According to Tanner and Jones (2003) oral feedback for writing tasks may be
provided during the lesson to make sure that both teachers and students can
discuss and reflect on what is required for improvement to take place. Sometimes
students do not even read the feedback made on their notes, leading Tanner and
Jones (2003) to express that oral can avoid having to take students' work home
and time consuming work, ore, Mohamed (2004) suggests that group feedback
also cuts down the marking if the mistakes are similar in the group. She considers
that group feedback can be positive so students can see that they are not the only
ones making the same mistakes and it can ALSO encourage them to work
together.
As stated before, students are emotional with different personalities and self-
esteem so "assignments covered in red ink without a single piece of positive
feedback can be extremely intimidating and demotivating." (Mohamed, 2004:14)
That is why the use of different ink colour except red is recommended. She also
recommends that teachers should give positive feedback even when there is
nothing good to say about the work. Comments such as "I agree with your idea"
"good point" could motivate students before telling them things to work on.
"Criticism is important [...] it will allow the students to see where they have gone
wrong." (Mohamed, 2004:14) We consider these recommendations very helpful
because as teachers we need to encourage learning.
Many authors such as Tummons (2005), Mohamed (2004) and Race (2001) have
discussed feedback. Table 6 lists some suggestions related to this topic.
Table 6: suggestions for feedback
(Race, 2001: 86-89; Tummons, 2005: 77-79; Mohamed, 2004: 14)
Giving formative feedback demands time, a relaxing environment, patience and
tolerance in teachers and students. However, feedback is a process in which
participants need to be to follow the suggestions mentioned above.
1.6.4 Grading system
Our education grading systems are mostly decided by institutional regulations.
However, sometimes course design teams or committees have some freedom in
deciding what form of stem they should apply and this can be sometimes difficult
and problematic. Taking this decision involves hard work, especially if we decide to
move away from traditionalist education. Curriculum redesign committees have to
be careful when establishing the aims and goals of the course, the types of
assessment and the grading system preferred. There are basically three
approaches to this:
Wallace (1991:132) describes Norm-referencing as "a statistical concept whereby
the total of candidates is assumed to fall into some kind of 'normal distribution', in
which will be a few very able people, a few very weak people, and the majority
scattered at us points in the middle."
Lethaby (2002:16) states "criterion-referencing — classifies people according to
whether they able to perform some task or set of tasks satisfactorily." Douglas
(2000:16) makes the comparison "with people who are taking a scuba diving test it
is clearly not important who knows more than someone else in this case, but what
is important is that the people who pass the test know the essential terms."
According to Tanner and Jones (2005: 5) the third referencing system is ipsative,
which is considered as the way "a learner [...] might think that the main reference
should be whether [he/she] is improving against [his/her] prior performance."
Furthermore, Tummons (2005: 27) has commented "ipsative assessment
encourages "students to reflect on ways to facilitate and improve their learning and
seek them out, it is a process which involves students and tutors in a dialogue
facilitated by feedback:"
Even though there are three systems, our Mexican Education System gives more
emphasis on norm-referencing, which is why most of the courses place students in
different categories: the best students get 10, good students get 9 or 8, and poor
students get 6 or fail. Moreover, the courses are not designed to give a pass or fail
for student's skills, knowledge and awareness acquired.
