ABSTRACT
Formative assessments are assessments for learning administered during instruction with the goal to support learning (Oosterhof, Conrad, & Ely, 2008; Vonderwell, Liang, & Alderman, 2007). They are designed to provide students feedback ∗ about their learning and instructors feedback about their teaching in a low-stakes format. Specifically, formative assessments can help answer the following questions:
How well are my students learning?
How effectively am I teaching?
How can I improve my teaching?
Is the course on track? If not, how far is it off and how can I get it back on the right track?
Formative assessments can include student feedback about what question(s) they have from that day’s class to a short quiz embedded in a video that require students to check their understanding before proceeding. Other examples include journals, concept maps, drafts of a project or paper, self-assessment ∗, and peer feedback (see peer assessment ∗). Angelo and Cross (1993) created a collection of Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) that are formative assessments to measure student knowledge and skills, attitudes and values, and reactions to instruction.