What is formative assessment?

Shirley Clarke, in "Formative Assessment in the Secondary Classroom" (2005), first spells out a "summary list" that defines formative assessment:

• clarifying learning objectives and success criteria at the planning stage, as a framework for formative assessment processes (chapter 1);
• sharing learning objectives and success criteria with students, both long term and for individual lessons (chapter 2);
• appropriate and effective questioning which develops the learning rather than attempts to measure it (chapter 3);
• focusing oral and written feedback, whether from teachers or student, around the development of learning objectives and meeting of targets (chapter 5)
• organising targets so that students' achievement is based on previous achievement as well as aiming for the next step (ipsative referencing) (chapter 5)
• involving students in self- and peer evaluation (chapter 6)
• raising students' self-efficacy and holding a belief that all students have the potential to learn and to achieve

In the introduction, she introduces the key research that underpins her book. The core of that research is Black and Wiliam research (Assessment Reform Group, 1999).  She cites Black and Wiliam's research to define formative assessment and "inhibiting factors.'

"The research indicates that improving learning through assessment depends on five, deceptively simple, key factors:

• the provision of effective feedback to students;
• the active involvement of students in their own learning
• adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessments
• a recognition of the profound influence assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of students, both of which are crucial influences on learning
• the need for students to be able to assess themselves and understand how to improve.

This was further broken down to include

• sharing learning goals with students;
• involving students in self-assessment;
• providing feedback which leads to students recognising their next steps and how to take them;
• underpinned by confidence that every student can improve

The "inhibiting factors" identified include:

• a tendency for teachers to assess quantity of work and presentation rather than the quality of learning;
• greater attention given to marking and grading, much of it tending to lower the self-esteem of students, rather than to provide advice for improvement;
• a strong emphasis on comparing students with each other which demoralises the less successful learners
• teachers' feedback to students often serves managerial and social purposes rather than helping them to learn more effectively.

OFSTED publication Good Assessment in Secondary Schools (2003) includes a list of the features seen in classrooms where formative assessment was deemed successful:

• a welcome to the students, who were personally valued and knew that they would be expected and helped to do their best
• clarity of aims and expected outcomes, discussed at the outset
• a range of methods that give students some responsibility  for organising how they learn, and that involve them in a variety of ways -- through presentations, displays, using the whiteboard, simulations, role play, quizzes, modelling, the use of memory and recall techniques, and through reflecting on the value of what has been achieved.
• a collaborative approach to learning, with a strong emphasis on analysis and discussion
• opportunities for divergent thinking in an atmosphere that ensures students do not feel bad if they make a mistake.