3.1.2
Summative vs Formative Evaluation
Complete the interactive activities in the Seneca app to work towards your CPD certificate.
Summative vs Formative Evaluation
Scriven (1967) suggested some of the earliest work on the distinction between summative and formative roles in programme evaluation.
Scriven's definition
- He identified summative as ‘information to judge the overall value of an educational programme’.
- Formative evaluation was believed to be used to provide focus on ‘facilitating programme improvement’.
Bloom's contextual definition
- This was further emphasised by Bloom (1969), who used similar definitions of the terms but in the context of pupils instead of the evaluations of programmes.
- Bloom emphasised that the main reason for the use of formative evaluation was to ‘provide feedback and correctives at each stage of the teaching-learning process’ whereas summative assessment was ‘employed to judge what the learner had achieved at the end of a course or programme’.
Black and Wiliam
- Building on the work of Scriven and Bloom, Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam concluded that ‘there is no other way of raising standards for which such a strong prima facie case can be made’.
- The evidence from their review indicated that the use of formative assessment was one of the single most effective strategies to support pupils in achieving learning intentions across all education phases.
Harry Fletcher-Wood
- **‘When assessment is formative, the aim is to reveal pupils’ weaknesses so that the teacher can act on them.
- When assessment is summative, the aim is to give pupils a final grade, and so there can be pressure to try to conceal and gloss over misunderstandings.
- Indeed, formative assessment is so different from summative assessment that Wiliam has said that he wished he had called AfL (assessment for learning), “responsive teaching”, rather than using the word assessment.’**
Analysis of this view
- This view of formative assessment as responsive teaching is useful to establish strategies to apply in the classroom.
- It provides a clear indication that when teachers are being responsive, they could be providing ‘in the moment’ necessary adjustments to teaching that reflects the data we collect after checking for understanding following knowledge input
1‘C’ - How Can Knowledge be Effectively Condensed?
1.1'C' - Condense
1.2Strategies for Condensing
2'R' - How do we Generate Reflective Learners?
2.1Research on Memory
2.2Timings for Reviewing Previously Learnt Material
2.3Strategies for Generating Reflective Learners
3‘A’ - Using Assessment as a Responsive Tool
3.1Formative & Summative Assessments
3.2Determining Whether Learning has Taken Place
3.3Strategies for Assessing Student Learning
4'F' & 'T' - Precise Feedback to Feedforward
4.1Giving Effective Feedback
4.3Strategies for Providing Feedback
Jump to other topics
1‘C’ - How Can Knowledge be Effectively Condensed?
1.1'C' - Condense
1.2Strategies for Condensing
2'R' - How do we Generate Reflective Learners?
2.1Research on Memory
2.2Timings for Reviewing Previously Learnt Material
2.3Strategies for Generating Reflective Learners
3‘A’ - Using Assessment as a Responsive Tool
3.1Formative & Summative Assessments
3.2Determining Whether Learning has Taken Place
3.3Strategies for Assessing Student Learning
4'F' & 'T' - Precise Feedback to Feedforward
4.1Giving Effective Feedback
4.3Strategies for Providing Feedback
Practice questions on Summative vs Formative Evaluation
Can you answer these? Complete these activities in the Seneca app to progress towards your certificate.
- 1
Unlock your full potential with Seneca Premium
Unlimited access to 10,000+ open-ended exam questions
Mini-mock exams based on your study history
Unlock 800+ premium courses & e-books