The Integration of Formative and Summative Assessments

 

The Integration of Formative and Summative Assessments

Author: Santosh Kumar Biswa, Sr. Teacher, Damphu CS, Tsirang, Bhutan

 

Our belief that the type of assessment we do determines the success of education makes assessment a crucial component of our educational system. Our school uses a continuous evaluation process all year long, doing both formative and summative assessments. I believe that learning should be the main objective of any examination, not just understanding the material. Because I always want my students to improve their capacity and ability to use their knowledge and skills in meaningful ways, I routinely provide exams. At my school, I evaluate my students using a range of tools.

Considering whether to integrate formative and summative assessments into the way I evaluate my students

As required by the educational system in my nation, I combine formative and summative evaluations when evaluating my students to gain a more complete picture of their learning and development. Utilizing both types of exams to get a complete picture of a student's learning and development is known as the integration of formative and summative assessments. Giving students regular feedback that fosters learning and contributes to an overall picture of their learning, can make the assessment process more relevant for them (University of Bristol, n.d.). In my classroom, I typically utilize formative assessment to track the development of my student's knowledge and to continuously give feedback based on their needs to modify my own training. On the other hand, I utilize summative tests to measure my pupils' level of skill or knowledge at a certain point in time. The information gained from the two tests is then combined to provide me a more complete picture of each student in my class, including their strengths and limitations, allowing me to make decisions about how to support their learning by raising the standard of teaching and learning (Looney, 2011). It will give me feedback on my instruction and enable me to modify my pedagogical approaches at the moment, enhancing my students' understanding and enhancing their readiness for summative exams. For instance, I have observed my students mastering the goals and each strand of the numerous goals in the subject I teach while also gaining a solid theoretical and conceptual grasp of the various contents (Singh, 2021).

I've seen significant progress in my students by combining formative and summative exams in the classroom. With more engagement, I've seen that my students are learning more. Additionally, I will have a better understanding of my students as I can identify their strong points and areas for improvement. This will allow me to better plan for the summative exam and utilize classroom time for successful lessons. As a result of what I learned in Units 1 and 2, I now have a greater knowledge of the formative and summative assessment processes and how they work together. I came to see that integrating formative and summative assessments may give our students effective learning opportunities and produce successful learning results. 

Considering whether a school has a concern for or aspires to this integration

Every school aspires for its students to gain knowledge, skills, and personal growth and wants to give them lifelong learning skills (Alfarsi, 2020) so that they can become productive and contributing citizens. This is why the integration of formative and summative assessments is generally seen as a goal in schools. The use of both sorts of assessments gives educators a more complete picture of a student's development and learning and aids in their decision-making about how best to promote student learning. Summative evaluations measure a student's knowledge of a subject or skill, whereas formative assessments offer ongoing feedback to improve education. Teachers can more accurately analyze a student's strengths and weaknesses by combining the data from the two types of exams. They can then use this information to decide how best to support the student's learning in the classroom and when to offer them the correct remedial services. This integration is regarded as advantageous and is frequently desired in many schools. Educators can better comprehend a student's learning process and modify their teaching tactics in real time by merging the data from the two types of evaluations (Looney, 2011). As a result, students learn more effectively and are better prepared for summative exams. Additionally, as students receive regular feedback on their progress and can see how their learning is progressing, the integration of formative and summative exams can boost student engagement and motivation (Formative and Summative Assessments, 2021). Because it can result in a more thorough and efficient assessment process, enhanced student learning, and higher levels of student engagement, the integration of formative and summative assessments is thus a goal in schools.

My New Learning from This Unit

The takeaway knowledge from this lesson is the integration of formative and summative assessments through technology, even though I have been practicing assessment through the integration of formative and summative assessment processes in my school. I came to understand that using digital technologies to administer and assess student learning is a useful method of assessment since it gives teachers real-time information on student learning and enables them to modify their instruction accordingly. Since the data would be gathered over time for a variety of tasks and in different contexts, it provides more accurate information on student performance on complex cognitive tasks, such as how students approach problem-solving, open-ended performances, like written essays, or student collaboration on constructed response formats (Looney, 2011). Additionally, technology can simplify the administration and scoring of exams, enabling a more effective and impartial assessment of student achievement.

References

Alfarsi, B. A. (2020). Integrating formative and summative assessment in learning and evaluation of English language in post basic education schools (secondary schools).

https://www.eimj.org/uplode/images/photo/Integrating_formative_and_summative_assessment_in_learning_and_evaluation_of_English_language.pdf

Formative and Summative Assessments. (2021b, June 30). Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Formative-Summative-Assessments

Looney, J. (2011). Integrating formative and summative assessments: progress towards a seamless system. OECD Education Working Papers No. 58. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED529586.pdf

Singh, V. V. (2021). Appraising the Aim to integrate Formative assessments with Summative assessments. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/appraising-aim-integrate-formative-assessments-summative-singh

University of Bristol. (n.d.). Rethinking Assessment. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/education/migrated/documents/integrating.pdf