What is a Formative Assessment?
Educators use formative assessments throughout the educational process to evaluate students’ level of understanding and adapt their teaching accordingly. Formative assessments improve teacher and student performance because it allows teachers to better understand their individual students’ strengths and weaknesses, and modify their education so they have the best experience possible.
Formative Assessment in education
Formative assessments come in a variety of models. They can be individual student tasks, like writing reflections, or class discussions prompted by the teacher. Formative assessments are generally not intended to affect a students; grades. They are more a measuring tool to track students’ strengths and weaknesses.
The most common formative assessments:
- Constructive feedback an educator gives to student projects
- In-class discussion where a teacher and their students can share and demonstrate knowledge
- Group assessments in which peers share knowledge and assess each other’s work
- Individual assessments in which students reflect on their own level of understanding
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