ABSTRACT
Summative assessments include examinations and the traditional marking or testing at the end of a piece/unit of work, while formative assessments include activities that provide feedback for developing the next stages of teaching and learning. In this chapter, the authors briefly explore the background to, and current debates within, Assessment for Learning (AfL), formative assessment and feedback in mathematics education. Their proposal is that to assess beyond mathematical subject knowledge content and move towards including assessment of mathematical thinking processes, they need to have the student, and the learning intentions, as explicit and central foci of the assessment cycle. To be considered formative assessment, which they suggest sits within AfL, the practice or its outcome must lead to the adaptation of future learning or practice for students or teachers in either the short or longer term with the intention of better meeting students' needs.
