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Formative Assessment Classroom Techniques

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 Resource & Research Guides Vol. 2 #13 2011
Formative Assessment Classroom Techniques
Alison Cullinane
Introduction
Formative assessment is the name given to
assessment which monitors student progress,
without grading, and using this information to
adapt teaching and learning in order to
facilitate the students needs during the task or
activity (Black & Wiliam 1998; Boston 2002;
Cowie & Bell 1999; Snowman & Beihler
2000). Assessment only becomes formative in
nature when either the teacher or the student
uses that information to inform teaching and/or
influence learning. It is worth nothing then
results from summative assessment can be used
for formative purposes (Atkins et al. 2001;
Keeley, 2008). The ultimate goal of formative
assessment is to help students develop their
own “learning to learn” skills (OECD 2005).
The Need for Formative Assessment
Keeley (2008) stated:
“Science educators agree that good
assessment practices are integral to
informing teaching and learning, as well
as measuring and documenting student
achievement. In the current climate of
high-stakes testing and accountability, the
balance of time, resources and emphasis
on students’ scores related to assessment
have been tilted towards the summative
side. Unfortunately, this had led to a cycle
of even more standardized testing of
students and the “mile wide, inch deep”
instruction, often with only marginal gains
of achievement.”
This trend is observed in many of the science
topics where students lack a complete
understanding. Formative assessment has
shown to significantly improve student
learning by giving them a better understanding
(Black and Wiliam 1998, OECD 2005).
However it has been shown that formative
assessment techniques are missing from many
classrooms (Black & Wiliams, 1998; Keeley,
2008).
© Alison Cullinane & NCE-MSTL, 2011
Reasons for the use of Formative
Assessment Classroom Techniques
(FACTs)
There are many reasons to use Formative
Assessment Classroom Techniques (FACTs) in
the classroom. FACTs have been shown to:
1. Activate thinking and engage learning.
2. Make students ideas explicit to themselves
and as well as the teacher.
3. Encourages participation of all learners by
increasing comfort in making one’s ideas
public, particularly quieter students who
often may not contribute to lessons.
4. Present a stimulus for discussion and
scientific argumentation.
5. Determine if students can apply scientific
ideas to new situations.
6. Give and use feedback (student to student,
student to teacher and teacher to student).
(Adapted from Keeley 2008, p.6).
Reflection before using FACTs
There is no one best FACT or collection of
FACTs for teaching and learning, so
consideration is necessary when deciding on
the FACTs you intend to use in your
classroom. Every teacher knows that class
dynamics varies from group to group and it is
through trial and error that the best fit for each
group will be found. It is also of benefit to ask
the following questions before you use the
FACT you have chosen: (1) Does this FACT
achieve what I want to achieve? (2) Does it suit
the subject I want to teach?
Examples of FACTs
There are a multitude of formative assessment
methods that can be used everyday in the
classroom simply and effectively to help you
gain an understanding of your students’
progress and abilities.
This guide documents a selection of formative
assessment methods. These FACTs have been
chosen as the author believes they are of
benefit to the student in taking ownership of
their learning and also all of these FACTs can
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 Resource & Research Guides Vol. 2 #13 2011
be adapted as you become more familiar with
them.
1. Think-Pair-Share
This technique combines thinking with
communication. Students are given an open-
ended question and they are given time to
“think” and if necessary jot down their
thoughts. They are then paired with a partner to
discuss and clarify their ideas. The students are
asked to share their ideas with the class or a
larger group. This will allow you to observe
any inaccuracies amongst your students’
thinking, which can be corrected immediately.
The whole class discussion also provides an
opportunity for teacher and students to give
feedback on student ideas.
General Implementation Attributes:
Time demand: Low
Cognitive demand: Medium
2. Pass the question
Pass the question allows students to work
together initially in pairs to respond to a
question, where they partially finish a response
in a given time frame (5-10 mins). When time
is up, they exchange their written, partially
completed response with another pair to finish,
modify or add too, as the other pair deem
necessary. Disagreement over responses may
surface among pairs leading to scientific
debates. Listening to the student exchanges
will give you good evidence on the nature and
dept of understanding of the student. In
addition to verbal evidence, the written
responses can be collected and examined to
observe the range of thinking among the
students. It is important to note that for this to
be an advantage, the development of a good
question which will elicit student responses is
pivotal to this FACT working well.
General Implementation Attributes:
Time demand in class: Medium
Cognitive demand: High
3. Muddiest point
The muddiest point is a technique which the
student is asked to jot down the part of the
lesson they are most unclear about at the end of
© Alison Cullinane & NCE-MSTL, 2011
a lesson. This provides an opportunity for
students to think about their own learning and
what they find difficult or easy to understand.
The chief advantage of this FACT is that it
provides students reluctant to speak out with an
opportunity to let their difficulties be known in
a comfortable manner. To administer this
technique, index-card size pieces of paper are
distributed (see Figure 1). The students are
asked to describe the part of the lesson most
unclear to them. Another variation of this
FACT is the Minute Paper (Angelo & Cross
1993). In the last few minutes of a lesson
students are instructed to take a minute to write
down short answers to two questions: 1.What
was the most important point made in class
today? 2. What unanswered question do you
still have? Responses again can be put on index
card size paper. The questions can be modified
but they should remain open-ended.
1. What was the most unclear part of the
lesson?
___________________________________
___________________________________
2. What was the most important point
made in class today?
___________________________________
___________________________________
3. What unanswered questions do you still
have?
___________________________________
___________________________________
Figure 1: Example of an index card with questions
which could be used for the FACTs: the Muddiest
Point and Minute Paper.
Once the student has finished, their responses
are collected for review. This size of paper
focuses the students to write concise points,
making it easier for teachers to review. The
responses allow the teacher to see areas the
students maybe having difficulty with which
can be addressed in the next lesson.
General Implementation Attributes:
Time demand in class: Low
Cognitive demand: Low to medium
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 Resource & Research Guides Vol. 2 #13 2011
4. Two-tier multiple choice questions
The two-tier multiple choice questions are a
form of objective test. This means they usually
have only one correct answer, so no further
judgement is required on marking. They are a
good method of gauging if students are
grasping the topic being taught. They also aim
to identify student misconceptions as the
alternative answers are based on typical
misconceptions held by students.. The structure
of the questions is seen in Figure 3, requires the
student to use analysing skills to reason out the
correct answer. The questions can be used to
start a classroom discussion, either a whole
class or in groups of 3 or 4 students. The
questions should be used at intervals while
teaching.
Figure 2: An example two-tier multiple choice question
on the topic of Respiration. (Adapted from Mann &
Treagust 2000)
The questions can either be put to the students
on a handout or on the data projector and they
can be asked to select their answers. They are a
good way of starting class discussions during
class, as the students can discuss why the
options are right or wrong. From this
discussion you will be able to correct any
misconception or misunderstanding as the
discussion progresses.
© Alison Cullinane & NCE-MSTL, 2011
General Implementation Attributes:
Time demand in class: Low to medium
Cognitive demand: Medium to high
5. Student generated test questions
The ability to formulate good questions about
topics can indicate the extent to which a
student understands the topic. Especially when
they have to devise questions which go beyond
recall (Keeley 2008). This FACT may need to
be administered a number of times before the
students learn to distinguish between higher
and lower level questioning. This FACT
requires the class to be divided into pairs or
groups and assigned a topic on which they are
each to write a question and provide the
answer. Afterwards the questions are discussed
and the answers are clarified with the class to
make sure all the students have given a correct
answer to their question. As an incentive, the
students are informed that their questions could
appear in the next test, therefore they can be
reassured of getting at least one answer correct
in the next test. Many of the questions can be
combined into one question if there are similar
questions and answers.
General Implementation Attributes:
Time demand in class: Medium to high
Cognitive demand: Medium to high
6. “What are you doing and why”?
This FACT is useful for practical based
lessons, as it activates student thinking about
an activity they are engaged in. The students
are asked “what are you doing and why?”at
some stage in a practical session to describe the
task they have been working on. This aims to
engage students more in understanding the
learning goal and purpose of a practical
session. This FACT aids the avoidance of
manic activity in hands-on science based
procedures that are fun and engaging, but the
students have no understanding of the purpose
of the activity. This FACT can be quite an eye
opener to teachers, especially if students are
highly engaged in an activity yet show they do
not know what the purpose of the activity is or
how it is applicable to the topics they are
learning in the classroom. This may be of
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 Resource & Research Guides Vol. 2 #13 2011
particular benefit to students in junior classes
or weaker ability classes.
General Implementation Attributes:
Time demand in class: Low
Cognitive demand: Medium
7. Concept Card Mapping
Concept card mapping is a variation on the
familiar strategy of concept mapping (See
Resource and Research Guide Vol. 1 # 7 by J.
Broggy). Instead of constructing their own
concept map from scratch, students are given
cards (see Figure 3) with the concepts written
on them. They move the cards around and
arrange them as a connected web of knowledge
(Keeley 2008). Moving the cards provides an
opportunity for students to explore and think
about different linkages. The linkages made by
students reveal the level of sophistication of
their ideas, accuracy of content knowledge and
depth and breadth of their thinking. This FACT
could also be used as a whole class
demonstration on the board where groups of
student have to construct maps with the cards
on the board and have to defend their linkages
in front of the class. This can be varied for
different class levels where concept words and
picture cards could be used and the students
would have to explain how the words link to
the pictures.
General Implementation Attributes:
Time demand in class: Low to medium
Cognitive demand: Medium to high
Figure 3: Illustrate sample concept cards on the topic
of Photosynthesis.
© Alison Cullinane & NCE-MSTL, 2011
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Points to note when using FACTs:
There are many things that are necessary to
consider when using FACTs in the classroom:
• Practice the FACTs you have selected to
see if they work in the context chosen.
• On the introduction of a new FACT, it is
essential that students are fully aware of
what is required to complete the task, in
order for the FACT to be effective
• Ensure you are able to produce a response
to the FACTs you have selected to use. If
you have difficulty with developing
answers to questions then you can be sure
your students will have difficulty (Keeley
2008).
• When students are responding to questions
or having a discussion, instruct them to turn
to the class and make eye contact so the
discussion is not just teacher-student
directed but also student- student directed.
References:
• Angelo, T. and Cross, K. P. (1993) Classroom
Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College
Teachers. , 2nd ed., San Francisco Jossy-Bass Publishers
• Atkin, J. M., Black, P. and Coffey, J. (2001) National
Research Council: Classroom Assessment and the
National Science Education Standards Washington D.C.:
The National Academies Press
• Black, P and Wiliams, D (1998) ‘Assessment and
Classroom Learning’, Assessment in Education:
Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7-74
• Boston, C (2002) ‘The Concept of Formative
Assessment’, Practical Assessment, Research &
Evaluation [online], available: http://PAREonline.
net/getvn.asp?v=8&n=9 [accessed November 10th 2008]
• Cowie, B and Bell, B (1999) “A model of formative
assessment in Science Education’, Assessment in
Education, 6(1), 101-116
• Keeley, P (2008) ‘Science Formative Assessment – 75
Practical strategies for linking Assessment, Instruction
and Learning’, California: NSTApress and Corwin Press.
• Mann, M. and Treagust, D. F. (2000) 'An instrument to
diagnose conceptions of breathing, gas exchange and
respiration ', in Paper presented at the annual meeting of
the National Association for Research in Science
Teaching, New Orleans, L April 28 - May 1, 2000, 18.
• OECD (2005) ‘Formative Assessment: Improving
Learning in the secondary classroom’ November [online],
available: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/19/31
/35661078.pdf [accessed November 10th 2008]
Ms Alison Cullinane
Projects Officer in Teaching and Learning
(Biological Sciences)
NCE-MSTL
E-mail: alison.cullinane@ul.ie
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