Empowering learning across cultures through formative assessment
By Sarah Taylor
In the world of teaching, there are many variables which lead to a successful learning outcome, the teaching, the student's engagement, and the right syllabus to name a few. Another area which is also as important as these, is the need for clear and thorough assessments. Students need and deserve invaluable feedback on their progress, be it to benchmark themselves for an impending exam, to provide reassurance to parents of their progress, or to inform the teacher of any parts of the learning that may need consolidating.
The best way to provide this, is a technique referred to as ‘formative assessment.’ For the purpose of this article, ‘formative assessment’ refers to a variety of formal and informal assessment procedures which take place during the learning process. They enable and support modification to both teaching and learning activities and to improve student attainment. This contrasts with the older style of ‘summative assessment’ which measures a student's overall progress in one final assessment. Many of us remember the stress and overwhelming pressure of linear exams, where 2 years of learning and study were crammed into exam as short as two hours. Today, thankfully assessment styles have evolved in more compassionate and creative ways.
The focus of this article will be on formative assessment across the world, and a look at how it can vary across cultures, and how effective it is at ensuring overall better learning outcomes for the student and teacher.
Testing however, is not the only way to gauge progress, and especially in such an environment where fun and creativity are included in the barometer of student satisfaction. Getting students involved in projects such as poster design, podcasts and presentations enable them to use new target language alongside concepts, then consolidate it by presenting it themselves in a highly involved, non-didactic way. Another light-hearted method is to give out slips of paper and ask the students to write 3 things-one they learnt well, one they did not understand and one they would like to know more about. They can then swap these with fellow students the next day and try to answer each other's questions. Students feedback at my summer school shows how much they enjoyed taking part in their own learning journey, and being more involved led to their greater motivation to succeed and led to overall happiness levels all around.
A close friend and colleague Zoe Smith teaches the International Baccalaureate syllabus at her school in China. Zoe informed me that the above method is a much-used formative assessment technique on her syllabus too, and additional methods such as placing large sheets of paper on a wall, and encouraging students to write all they know on the paper under different headings are also very effective at allowing the teacher to gauge students levels and attainment, and enabled planning to structure the next steps.
Overall, it appears in Asian countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan it does however take longer for the formative assessment styles to be adopted. In China, for example, there is the concept that being a quiet student who doesn’t question the teacher's authority, as it relates to the Confucian teaching tradition deeply rooted in their culture, so it needs to be gently encouraged and slowly rolled out so it can be integrated sensitively. However, academic achievement is revered in these cultures and even the shyest student’s instrumental motivation is triggered by the thought they can modify and improve in learning.
Heading over to Texas, USA to a colleague Monica Kincaid who teaches EAL to a variety of different nationalities at her school. Monica says that formative assessment is an invaluable aid in her teaching and subsequent planning. She explained that she also uses screening tests at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the semester to ascertain which students may need help before they start to struggle, and as such, procedures can be put in place. Further formative assessment support techniques, called ‘Reading Conferences’ in her state include talking with students one on one. This enables a more personal and in-depth evaluation of reading habits, fluency and understanding of the student for the teacher. As with the methodology used by Lorna in South Korea, findings have concluded that they not only enable the teacher to plan and accommodate any learning needs, but they also foster closer bonds with the students and a trust which is an essential tie in the teacher/student relationship. Nurtured students are much more likely to want to come to school and see it as something that is there for them, and to support their growth and development. There is, however, more emphasis on the ‘buddy’ element of formative assessment in Monica’s US school than in South Korea and China.
It appears that in all these examples, and across the world, formative assessment is not a ‘one-off’ technique, but as an integral part of the learning process that engages both teachers and students. Compared to summative assessment in which students are highly aware that there just one ‘monolithic ‘impending exam. Educators William and Black in their book ‘Inside the Black Box’ (1998) relate to formative assessment by stating that there are different cycles for the assessment period, short, medium, and long. A weekly test can be seen as a medium-term tool, whereas a presentation or a class quiz can be seen as a short-term tool, and of course they can be done on an ad hoc basis and changed in style. Longer term formative assessment can be a series of weekly meetings with the students, or a set of micro tests which all lead to greater confidence when there is one final exam.
Overall, across the world, formative assessment is here, and it is here to stay. Like online teaching, the benefits offered to the overall learning process are numerous, to both student and teacher alike. Helping to foster stronger teacher/student relationships, take away the stress of one impending exam after years of study, and allowing time and space to fill in any learning gaps, it really is an invaluable technique.
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