Research briefing

Formative assessmentThis is one of a series of publicationsproduced to provide up-to-datesummaries of recent researchfindings from the National Researchand Development Centre for AdultLiteracy and Numeracy (NRDC) andassociated organisations. The seriesfeatures summaries in each of thefollowing areas:

• Family literacy, languageand numeracy (FLLN)

• Formative assessment• Numeracy• Persistence• Priority groups• Progression

This paper summarises the key messages fromNRDC and other research and developmentactivity on formative assessment in adultlearning. This has been an under-researchedarea: much of the work on formative assessmentin the UK and internationally has been carriedout in compulsory or higher education. While thishas generated a solid evidence base supportingthe usefulness of formative assessment andidentifying general techniques and activities thatteachers can use with their students, untilrecently there had not been an attempt to relatethese ideas to adult learning or to review theliterature to learn how formative assessment canwork with adult learners. However, recentresearch suggests that formative assessmentmay be particularly useful for adult learners, in avariety of settings.

This short paper explores research on the use offormative assessment, discusses what formativeassessment is and is not, briefly explains somekey formative assessment strategies, and looksat challenges to the expanded use of formativeassessment in adult learning.

NRDC RESEARCH BRIEFING

Formative assessment

Introduction

The research backgroundThere is a wealth of research evidencedemonstrating the effectiveness offormative assessment in compulsoryschooling and higher education. In Insidethe Black Box, for example, Black andWiliam (1998) found that formativeassessment practices were associatedwith some of the largest gains in learnerachievement ever reported for anyeducational intervention, and that theevidence of those benefits wasparticularly apparent for previouslyunderachieving learners. In this study,researchers found that numerousformative assessment techniquesimproved knowledge and understandingwhile also increasing learner motivationand self-esteem. These techniquesincluded feedback through marking,open-ended questioning, peer- and self-assessment, and the formative use ofsummative tests.

Other research has drawn similarconclusions. For instance, afteranalysing evidence from thousands ofstudies on teaching interventions aroundthe globe, John Hattie (2003) hasconcluded that feedback, the centralmechanism of formative assessment, isthe single most effective educationalintervention, offering greater positiveimpact than any other technique.

Formative assessment in adultlearningWhile most of the research on formativeassessment has focused on compulsoryand higher education, there is a smallbut growing body of research into theefficacy of formative assessment in adultlearning, and there are suggestions thatformative assessment may be even morebeneficial in adult learning than in othereducational settings. The ‘ImprovingFormative Assessment’ project, jointlyfunded by the NRDC, the QualityImprovement Agency (QIA) and theNuffield Foundation, was designed tosupport teachers’ formative assessmentpractices and to develop new theoreticalknowledge about the principles andpractices of effective formativeassessment in post-compulsoryeducation.

Defining formative assessmentFormative assessment is assessment forlearning, as opposed to assessment oflearning (Black and Wiliam 1998). Inassessment for learning, the firstpriority of the assessment is not toincrease accountability, establishrankings, or certify competence. It is topromote learning.

To accomplish this, the interactionbetween teacher and learner is key.Formative assessment requires teachersto make regular assessment of learners’understanding and progress in order toidentify individual learners’ needs and toshape teaching and learning accordingly.The tutor’s primary role is to facilitatethe learning process, not to impartinformation. Ideally, assessment is notjust frequent but is continuous and/or

systematic – i.e. it is an integratedfeature of the learning offer. Mostimportantly, what the teacher learnsfrom assessment should be used toadapt his or her teaching to better meetlearner needs, which are likely to beevolving constantly. Without adaptationthe assessment is not formative, it ismerely frequent.

Formative assessment is sometimesconfused with continuous or modularassessment, in which assessment ofcertification and/or progress is spreadthroughout the learning programmeinstead of occurring only at the end.However, this process is summativerather than formative. Formativeassessment is more interactive anddevelopmental, requiring teachers to usetheir experience and judgement todetermine the most effective ways tohelp learners develop.

Formative assessment strategiesResearch on formative assessment hasidentified several effective strategies.These include: giving feedback throughmarking; improving the quality ofquestioning and dialogue; the use ofpeer- and self-assessment; encouraginglearner talk; and the formative use ofsummative tests.

FeedbackEffective feedback is at the heart offormative assessment. Whether verbalor written, it should focus on the taskrather than the person. It should beconstructive and practical, and bereturned as soon as possible. Grades,marks and evaluative remarks that donot provide information or advice abouthow to improve performance should beavoided. Comment-only marking – i.e.without marks or grades – can also beeffective. Above all, feedback shouldcause thinking to take place.

QuestioningTeachers should develop a repertoire ofquestioning techniques, and share ideaswith colleagues to maintain and developthis repertoire. One effective strategy isto increase the proportion of higher levelquestions – that is, questions thatrequire learners to think rather than torecall facts or procedures. Questioningthat aims to develop thoughtfulness ismore useful than questioning foraccuracy and correctness. Doublequestions, leading questions, rhetoricalquestions and closed questions are lessuseful, because they discouragelearners from reflecting on a problem orrevealing what they do not understand.Much more useful are open questionswhich require students to find their ownwords. It is also often useful to increasethe waiting time after asking a questionto give learners adequate time to offeran answer (see Swain et al. 2006).

Encouraging learner talkTalk in the classroom has severalpurposes: not only does it enableteachers to assess learners, it enableslearners to assess themselves. One wayto encourage more talk by learners isthrough ‘saying less, listening more’. Bysaying less themselves, teachers allow

Formative assessment isassessment for learning,as opposed to assessmentof learning.

Formative assessment

What the research shows

and encourage students to speak moreand thus reveal more about theirunderstanding. This has been referred toas interpretive listening: listening towhat students say in order to figure outwhy they have said it and what to do next(Davis 1997). This is in contrast to themore commonplace practice ofevaluative listening, where teachers askquestions to which they already knowthe correct answers and typically giveshort, evaluative feedback to learners’responses.

Another way to encourage more talk isto cultivate a relaxed, open environment.Formative assessment depends onstudents feeling secure enough in theclassroom to face challenges and takerisks in asking questions or advancingpropositions that might reveal their lackof understanding. As far as possible,teachers should structure learning as adialogue both between themselves andtheir students, and among students.Teachers should also encouragestudents to see themselves and theirpeers as the architects and engineers oftheir own learning. This demands asignificant amount of rich, interactive,multi-directional communication.

Peer- and self-assessmentLearner talk and an open, interactiveenvironment go hand in hand with peer-and self-assessment. Encouraginglearners to assess and evaluate eachother’s methods and ideas enableslearners to better understand what theythemselves know, and to express wherethey want to go next.

The formative use of summativeassessmentSummative assessment plays a centralrole in current adult education policy-making, and may discourage formativeassessment by encouraging teachersand learners to focus on certification-directed tests rather than learningper se. At the same time, it is a mistaketo think that assessment is eitherformative or summative. In truth,summative assessment processes canbe used for formative purposes. One wayof thinking about this is through theanalogy of tasting soup (Hattie 2003).

When soup is tasted at the dinner table,the assessment is summative. When it istasted during the cooking process, theassessment is formative. The process isthe same, only the aims and timings aredifferent.

Using summative assessmentformatively means finding ways toencourage students to get beneath andgo beyond the results of summativeassessment processes and to try tounderstand how they work and reflect onwhat they mean. Teachers can andshould aim to balance the demands ofsummative assessment with the long-term needs of their learners. Thismeans focusing on the capacity oflearners to plan, develop and evaluatetheir own learning and that of others,even within the context of a target drivenlearning sector that is heavily reliant onsummative assessment.

ChallengesDespite the widespread take-up offormative assessment in compulsoryand higher education, a number ofstudies have highlighted the difficultiesin properly implementing the practice,finding that formative assessmentconcepts have often been misunderstoodor misapplied. Little wonder: formativeassessment is not easy, nor isintegrating it with other teachingpractices. Teachers need judgement,sensitivity and no small measure ofcourage to transform the teachingprocess into one of dialogue, continualfeedback, and regular readjustmentbased on that feedback.

Teachers also need time. Learner talk,peer-assessment, feedback, and theregular readjustment of teaching tomeet evolving learner needs takes time,something that most teachers do nothave in abundance. Making the most ofoften fleeting opportunities for formative

assessment can be challenging. Thefostering of ‘formative assessmentmoments’ is crucial, but this createsadditional tasks for the teacher: how tonotice such moments, and how to makebest use of them?

Just good teaching?To many practitioners, the goals offormative assessment are ‘just goodteaching’. In many ways this is true.However, a key strength of formativeassessment is that it encouragesconsistent focus on effective practicesthat might otherwise be pushed on tothe backburner due to time constraints,the demands of summative assessment,or other factors. One of the practitionerrespondents in our Improving FormativeAssessment project mentioned:

‘I was perplexed as to what was new aboutformative assessment, because it seemedto me that this was what we had all beenexhorted to do. But on reflection I supposethat although it is what we are supposedto do, for various reasons it is not what weactually do.’

Focusing on formative assessment as akey element of the learning processencourages effective practice on behalfof teachers, and can help developmotivation, confidence and autonomy inlearners. NRDC research has also founda clear link between formativeassessment, motivation andachievement.

Feedback should focuson the task rather thanthe person.

References and further readingBlack, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998) Inside the blackbox: Raising standards through classroomassessment. London: King’s College LondonSchool of Education.

Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, C. andWiliam, D. (2002) Working inside the black box:Assessment for learning in the classroom.London: King’s College London/nferNelson.

Davis, B. (1997) ‘Listening for differences: Anevolving conception of mathematics teaching’.Journal from Research in Mathematics Education,28(3), 355–376.

Derrick, J. and Ecclestone, K. (2008) ‘English-language literature review’ in Teaching, learningand assessment for adults: Improving foundationskills. Paris: Center for Educational Researchand Innovation, OECD Publishing.

Ecclestone, K. (2008) Transforming formativeassessment in post-compulsory education.Buckingham: Open University Press.

Hattie, J. (2003) Teachers make a difference:What is the research evidence? Paper presentedat the Australian Council for EducationalResearch Annual Conference on BuildingTeacher Quality, October. Available online:www.visionschools.co.nz/assets/documents/john_hattie.PDF. Last accessed: 31January 2008.

Improving Formative Assessment projectwebsite: www.brookes.ac.uk/education/research/IFAproject

Lavender, P., Derrick, J. and Brooks, B. (2006)Testing, testing… 1,2,3: Assessment in adultliteracy, language and numeracy. Leicester:NIACE.

Looney, J. (2008) Teaching, learning andassessment for adults: Improving foundationskills. Paris: Center for Educational Researchand Innovation, OECD Publishing.

Swain, J., Griffiths, G. and Stone, R. (2006)'Integrating formative/diagnostic assessmenttechniques into teachers' routine practice inadult numeracy', Research and Practice in AdultLiteracy, vol. 59, Spring 2006.

Torrance, H., Colley, H., Garratt, D., Jarvis, J.,Piper, H., Ecclestone, K. and James, D. (2005)The impact of different modes of assessment onachievement and progress in the learning andskills sector. London: Learning and SkillsResearch Centre.

Formative assessment

Scope of this paper

This paper is based on research onformative assessment, both in adultlearning and elsewhere. The keymessages are drawn from a range ofresources, the most recent of whichare two projects by the NRDC and onefor the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) towhich the NRDC contributed. Thesethree projects are summarised below.

English-language literature reviewThe aim of this NRDC study was toexplore how methods or activities informative assessment might work withadults, their possible impact onlearning and achievement, and theimplications for implementation.Ninety-nine texts were reviewed.These included academic papers,policy documents and publicationsdealing with self-assessment andformative assessment that were aimedat adult learners or which referencedlifelong or adult learning.

Improving the quality of teaching andlearning in numeracy and formativeassessmentThis NRDC project focused on thedevelopment and evaluation ofteaching strategies for formativeassessment in numeracy. Researchersfrom King’s College London workedwith a team of teacher-researchers toevaluate the changes in classroompractice that occurred during theproject, and the processes by whichthese changes came about.

Teaching, learning and assessmentfor adults: Improving foundationskillsThis international study analyses datadrawn from an international review ofliterature, case studies of exemplarypractice drawn from seven countries,and country background reports.Undertaken for the OECD by theCentre for Educational Research andInnovation, and with the NRDCcontributing to the section on England,the study complements an OECDreport on formative assessment inlower secondary schools which foundthat formative assessment promotesgreater equity of student outcomesand builds skills for learning to learn.The goals of the study were to find outwhat is known about the impact ofdifferent learning, teaching andassessment practices for adultliteracy, language and numeracylearning and how effective practice canhappen on a wider basis.

• There is a wealth of research demonstrating theeffectiveness of formative assessment incompulsory and higher education, and a smallbut growing body of research illustrating thebenefits of formative assessment in adultlearning.

• Formative assessment is assessment forlearning, as opposed to assessment of learning.

• Frequent assessment is not necessarily formativeassessment.

• Key formative assessment techniques includefeedback, questioning, encouraging learner talk,and peer- and self-assessment.

• Feedback is at the heart of formative assessment,and should always provide information about howto improve performance.

• Formative assessment can be difficult toimplement, because it takes time, which teachersoften have little of. It also requires energy,judgement and courage, traits that many teachershave in abundance.

Formative assessment

Key points

NRDCInstitute of EducationUniversity of London20 Bedford WayLondon WC1H 0ALTelephone: +44 (0)20 7612 6476Fax: +44 (0)20 7612 6671email: info@nrdc.org.ukwebsite: www.nrdc.org.uk

NRDC is a consortium of partners led by theInstitute of Education, University of London.It includes:• Lancaster University• University of Nottingham• University of Sheffield• National Institute of Adult Continuing Education• Learning and Skills Network• LLU+, London South Bank University• King’s College London

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