Formative Assessment In Education

This transformation emerged initially in a paper by Cardinet (1977) whose conception of regularities was inspired by Cybernetic systems analysis. Allal (1979) subsequently distinguished three modalities of regulation associated with formative assessment: interactive, retroactive and proactive regulations. Interactive regulations occur when formative assessmentis based on the interactions of the students with other components of instructional activity, that is, with the teacher, with other students, and/or with material allowing self- regulated learning. Retroactive regulations, on the other hand, concern the application of formative assessmentafter completion of a phase of teaching in order to verify the achievement of instructional objectives. The feedback from the assessment leads to the selection of means for correcting or overcoming learning difficulties encountered by some students. Proactive regularities occur when different sources of information allow the preparation of new instructional activities designed to take into account differences among the

It is generally believed that formative assessment encompasses all those activities undertaken by teachers and students which provide information to be used as feedback to monitor the teaching and learning activities (Black & William, 1998; Nicol & Macfalane-Dick, 2005). Such techniques, hence, augment the effectiveness of the instruction and involve learners and teachers in jointly evaluating the learning process. Consequently, learners will become capable of restructuring their understanding/skills and building more powerful ideas and capabilities. That is, formative assessment techniques can enhance learner autonomy and, as such, are compatible with the goals of progressive education. It is possibly for the same reason that Heritage (2010) suggested formative assessmentas one of the most powerful tools teachers can have in their repertoire. In their most recent and comprehensive review, Black and William (2009) provided a unifying basis for diverse practices of formative assessmentand proposed that the distinctive feature of formative assessment practice is the extent to which evidence about student achievement is elicited, interpreted and used by teachers, learners and their peers, to make decisions regarding subsequent stages of teaching and