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One of the significant transformations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) is the implementation of the Bologna process. This alteration of the traditional system to the Bologna process system has also impacted the assessment schemes. More weight has been given to formative assessment that can help improve students' grades and ease success in the courses. Nonetheless, the final exam still carries most of the grades. Therefore, setting appropriate questions that can meet all the cognition levels represented in Bloom's taxonomy assists in raising students' cognition to higher levels rather than only assessing bookish knowledge that is located on the baseline of Bloom's taxonomy. To this intent, the present study endeavored to identify if instructors at colleges of Nursing and Science adhere to the various dimensions of Bloom's taxonomy that are central to the Bologna process. More importantly, the association of each of the demographic variables to the level of the final examination questions was also examined. The study employed a quantitative method to tackle the topic. Totally, a sample of 75 final examination papers was collected from instructors, including 524 individual questions. The findings revealed that most of the examination papers revolved around low-order thinking questions and the association of the rate of success to the level of the questions was highly statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students face challenging texts and concepts across the disciplines in higher education, and many students lack the reading skills and strategies to make sense of them. The aim of the small study described in this article was to explore the benefits, if any, of the difficulty paper, a written formative assessment that asks students to explore their difficulties with challenging texts. An inductive analysis of student difficulty papers in a multidisciplinary "Great Works" course suggests that the paper encouraged students to address their confusion without dismissing it and helped students to model the processes of good reading. Findings also suggest that the assignment may be a useful tool to develop disciplinary habits of mind. The article concludes with an example of how educators might use the difficulty paper in science and mathematics courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amongst academics working with postgraduate students, there has recently been increasing interest in ways of supporting advanced academic literacy (AAL). This is a concern for us at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, where we teach a diverse group of postgraduate students, most of whom are subject practitioners in higher education but newcomers to the study of education. We argue that the development of AAL cannot be taken for granted - it needs to be mediated and practised in situated tasks. Our concern is how most effectively, within our context, to encourage awareness of the underlying, often unarticulated norms for participation in this complex social interaction with a disciplinary community to which our students are newcomers. In this article we demonstrate that the use of reaction papers provides opportunities for legitimate peripheral participation in both the cognitive and social processes of AAL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Playful learning has seen a resurgence of interest in the past decade, particularly in contexts where play is not traditionally part of a teacher’s repertoire. Teachers interested in exploring the integration of play in their classrooms need formative tools and resources that help them to reflect and assess their own practice and their ability to create a playful learning experience for their students. This study presents the results of two rounds of pilot testing in three countries for Teacher RePlay, a new open-source toolkit designed to support teachers interested in reflecting on and deepening their learning through play practice. The toolkit includes the main Teacher RePlay observation protocol for teachers, as well as Children ReAct, a complementary protocol for a photo-elicited focus group discussion with children, intended to directly assess children’s experiences and reflections on learning through play. Upon observation, teachers receive customized coaching suggestions and tips designed to strengthen their learning through play practice. Initial results from the piloting indicate that the toolkit holds strong potential for teachers interested in better understanding and deepening their playful learning practice. This paper discusses the development, validation, successes, and challenges of the Teacher RePlay toolkit, and identifies future directions for its use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the heath measures taken during the outbreak of Covid-19, the lack of educational methods has become the primary concern among educational professionals who have been using technology as a motivational tool. Gamification is very important because it helps students to represent their study contents and enrich their experiences of higher education when learning in-person is unavailable during the Covid-19 period. This study seeks to present an Android-based gamification app to evaluate the effect of using gamification and e-quizzes on college students' learning. We used the visual blocks language from the MIT App Inventor platform to develop an application, available at (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appinventor.ai%5fmekomerofofo.projectGamification). The participants were students from level 2 who used digital lessons for learning MATLAB. The study included gamified learning and non-gamified learning, both integrated into lesson plans, to investigate the differences in learners' performance. Two types of quizzes were used for instruction: gamified e-quizzes and paper-based quizzes. The outcomes plainly showed that using the new gamified e-quiz was more effective than using paper-based quizzes. They are better for assessing the learning performance of the students in question, specifically in terms of formative assessment. It is very important for instructors to apply games as a modern and innovation-oriented tool through which students can be engaged in an attractive, competitive experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Consumer & Consumption Research / Tüketici ve Tüketim Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of Beta Basim Yayin Dagitim and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper provides an overview of the evolution of an introductory physics course for non-majors entitled Physics for a New Millennium (PNM) at American University. Following a brief of the research and pedagogical framework for the course design, a of the course curriculum will be presented. A significant portion of the course curriculum provides students with an opportunity to experience all aspects of preparing, writing, and presenting a professional research paper in a conference setting. Following a description of the course curriculum, the specific structure for the conference paper activity will be outlined and highlights of student work will be shared with a focus on the spring 2012 class. The conference paper activity is assessed using authentic, formative strategies and will serve as one focus of this paper. To address the authentic assessment piece, a collection of strategies and methods will be shared that have been designed to key in on what and how students are learning throughout all phases of the paper writing process. These methods can be used as an alternative, or as a supplement to more traditional pencil and paper examinations, quizzes, and homework assignments. The thrust of the authentic assessment is to address any deficiencies in student learning while the learning is taking place. Exams and quizzes end up being "too little, too late" in terms of helping students correct any flaws in their understanding. Feedback from students relating to the paper writing experience will also be shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Italian Journal of Health Education, Sport & Inclusive Didactics is the property of Edizioni Universitarie Romane and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

International science education reforms seek to support teachers in using everyday assessment to draw out and work with student ideas; however, developing these instructional practices requires time and support. This paper investigates how a professional development program supported high school chemistry teachers to learn about formative assessment design with a learning progression for modelling energy. Five high school chemistry teachers participated over the course of one academic year, attending bimonthly school-based sessions in which they designed, enacted, and reflected upon formative assessment tasks. We used qualitative methods to analyze recordings of professional development meetings, videorecorded classroom observations, and interviews. Findings suggest that the professional development approach supported teachers' learning about tools and routines of formative assessment with the learning progression, and in turn, they were able to apply this learning in their classroom practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most popular Online Student Response Systems (OSRSs), Socrative is defined as a web-based platform that can be accessed using any browser that is connected to the Internet (Mork, 2014). In an attempt to guide EFL teachers on their journey towards transforming their traditional paper-based formative assessment into using electronic tools, this study seeks to present the expectations and attitudes of Saudi female learners towards the use of mobile-based formative assessment. The study aims to investigate the attitudes of EFL learners towards the use of mobilebased tests in English classes using Socrative as a model for assessment. For this purpose, 35 female students completed all three stages of the experiment; initial survey, Socrative quiz, postexperiment survey. The participants are enrolled in one of the courses of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) offered by the Preparatory Year Program at a Saudi state university. The findings of the study indicate that almost half of the participants preferred paper-based over mobile-based tests in the pre-experiment survey; after the experiment, however, the students changed their preferences in favor of mobile-based tests. The study also highlighted different advantages, reported by the participants, of using Socrative as a tool for formative assessment in EFL classrooms. The study recommends that teachers implement the use of (OSRSs) in their classrooms as they have many pedagogical benefits for language learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a Classroom Action Research (CAR) on the use of Nearpod, an online platform that facilitates the use of interactive teaching material using mobile devices, to conduct a formative assessment in the classroom. There are two aims of this study. First, exploring the effectiveness of using Nearpod to conduct in-class Multiple-Choice Question (MCQ) quizzes in an introductory undergraduate financial accounting class. Second, exploring its influence on the teaching and learning experiences at one of the top private universities in Egypt. In addition, the research attempted to find out how the instructor's use of Nearpod in the classroom affected students' interest in the subject matter and course material when compared to conventional paper and pen quizzes. Results from students' survey and focus groups indicated that using Nearpod heightened students' interest in the class and positively affected their learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) are educational systems that reflect knowledge using artificial intelligence implements. In this paper, we give an outline of the Programming-Tutor architectural design with the core implements on user interaction. This pilot proposal is for designing a model domain of a subset in the computer programming language. The completed project would be adequate to show the idea of a completely developed computing Intelligent Tutoring System in online programming courses to offer benefits to students in the Pacific. This proposed concept would also provide students with an immersive learning experience in an online course to assist in a formative assessment to enhance student learning. A smart tutoring system can provide prompt input of high quality which not only conveys to students about the consistency of the solution but also provides them with information on the precision of the key concerning their existing solutions expertise. This Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is proposed to be designed using intelligent algorithms such as optimized ant colony to be able to support the online tutoring system that can initiate the complex learning principles in computing science courses. It is also hypothesized that, based on the performance of other Intelligent Tutoring Systems, students would be able to learn to program more easily in regional campuses and acquire experiences more rapidly and efficiently than students who are taught using conventional methods in an online mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This concluding essay offers a reflection on the set of the papers contained in this special issue of the Educational Assessment journal. In it the author situates formative assessment squarely in the realm of teachers' continuous professional learning and considers the essential nature of formative assessment as centering on three questions that guide the practice for both teachers and students: where are the students going (well-defined learning goals), where are they currently (evidence collected during the course of learning), and how to close the gap between these two (instructional adjustments, feedback, and student involvement)? The author returns at the end to note the importance of professional learning in the context of formative assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary educational literature assessment is viewed as a key element of pedagogy, and student self- and peer-assessment is viewed as a vital component of the assessment processes occurring within pedagogical practice. This notion is also present within physical education (PE) literature. Within this body of work however, there has been little attention on how students participate in their own assessment. The focus has rather been towards the teacher's assessment practices. The aim of this paper is therefore to explore how students themselves participate in the assessment processes that occur in PE. By drawing on assessment theory presented by Black and Wiliam (2009. Developing the theory of formative assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1), 5–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-008-9068-5) and the educational perspective of American pragmatist John Dewey, the paper presents a theoretical reconceptualization of assessment that can occur within learning situations. By utilizing this conceptualization to analyse empirical material gathered within the Norwegian PE context, the paper presents findings under three main headings. These are participating in establishing; (1) where the students are in their learning, (2) where the students are going in their learning and (3) how to get where they are going. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results and general implications of the findings for both practitioners and researchers interested in the phenomenon of assessment in PE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education Sciences & Society is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Educators are concerned that children make progress in their learning. While there are both policy and professional debates about how progress should be monitored and assessed, the views of children are rarely considered. Grounded in the 'voiced' research tradition, this paper reports on 158 focus group interviews with upper primary school students in purposefully selected arts rich schools in England. Children were asked about what they thought progress in arts subjects was, and how it was achieved. No children talked about grades or marks and only a handful mentioned rewards schemes. Their own evaluations and those of significant others, teachers, friends and family were very important. Children saw progress as supported and shaped by teacher pacing, scaffolding and feedback. Their own commitment to practice, use of feedback, persistence and self-belief were also highly significant. We suggest that these children's understandings have implications for the work that arts teachers do, and in particular for the ways in which children use feedback and develop their own criteria for self-evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides both a summary and plenary paper for a Special Issue of papers that build on the findings of a research project that investigated formative and summative assessment methods to support and to improve inquiry-based science teaching and learning. The paper aims to unravel some of the complexity that underpins classroom assessment practices as teachers bring change to their pedagogical approaches, taking into consideration both the variability and variation in interpretation of both processes by STEM teachers across eight countries. By engaging with research processes, in collaborative working groups in each country, teachers were better equipped to face the practical challenges they encountered in their various contexts, strengthening both their processes of critical reasoning and exercise of professional judgement. We draw from this interweaving of connected professional ideas and nested practices, a consideration of those factors which seem most pertinent in terms of formality, temporality, response and desired outcomes. As such, the paper provides a directive that highlights how the development of inquiry competences and the skills to negotiate productive pathways through an inquiry activity can be informed, developed and enhanced by formative assessment. Such developments require pedagogic moves that allow student agency while fostering advancement through guided feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory essay provides a framing for and an overview of the papers contained in this special issue of the Educational Assessment journal. In it the author begins with a brief description of the history of classroom observation tools, and then articulates a rationale for observation protocols that target formative assessment. Examining similarities and differences across the protocols, the author orients the reader to the approaches to classroom observation that are the focus of the special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memorization is a crucial factor in effective learning and achieving educational goals. Recent research has suggested that short video sequences viewed by students before class can aid in acquiring and retaining basic concepts, thereby improving memorization and positively impacting the learning process in the flipped classroom approach. However, frequent use of digital tools among adolescents has been found to negatively impact cognitive functions such as memorization. It is worth noting that the traditional use of paper-based materials has been found to have a positive impact on memorization, particularly among learners who are easily distracted by digital devices or experience eye strain from prolonged screen use. Printed materials can offer a more tactile experience, allowing learners to physically highlight and annotate text, which can aid in the encoding and retrieval of information. This study aimed to assess the role of digital tools in the flipped classroom approach and determine if they could be substituted by paper-based materials. To achieve this, a comparative study was conducted between 35 students using digital tools in their flipped classroom (FCDS) and 31 students using paperbased materials (FCPS). The study involved administering pre-tests and post-tests to both groups to evaluate their ability to retrieve basic concepts and assess the effectiveness of their learning in life and earth sciences. The results indicate that learners were able to retrieve knowledge effectively regardless of the medium used and that the positive effect of the FCDS on recall during learning is comparable to that of the FCPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public education policy of an individual country determines, among other things, the ways of documenting the educational process and children's outcomes. This paper explores the opinion of preschool teachers about documenting children's development. The sample included preschool teachers from two systems, or two different curricular approaches. One exists in the Republic of Croatia (curriculum based on the competence framework) and other in Bosnia and Herzegovina (curriculum based on normative outcomes). The measuring instrument Questionnaire of Preschool Teachers' Opinions on Monitoring the Psycho-physical Status of Children (a= .847), was constructed for research purposes. The Questionnaire was based on relevant literature and insights into existing educational practices. On a dichotomously structured 4-level scale, preschool teachers estimated that the most important purpose of documenting children's development is the planning of developmental incentives (M=3.63; SD= 0.495). They agree that monitoring should be continuous throughout the entire academic year (M=3.53; SD= 0.666). Likewise, preschool teachers are less inclined to one-time assessments of a children's psycho-physical status, considering "a testing" unlikely to provide a realistic image of their development (M=1.88; SD=0.797). No correlation was found between preschool teachers' age, length of service, and level of education. Using the t-test of independent samples, a mild/weak, but statistically significant difference in the preschool teachers' assessment between the subsamples was determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Community Service & Empowerment is the property of Journal of Community Service & Empowerment and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper introduces the articles that comprise this Special Issue on Izapa. First, we review early reporting and assessments of Izapa's monuments as well as archaeological investigations undertaken at the site during the twentieth century. Next, we describe more recent developments in interpretation and new archeological excavations and survey data collected during the past two decades. The papers in this Special Issue present new information that contribute to our evolving understanding of Izapa during the millennium that stretches from the Middle Formative period through the Middle Classic period (700 b.c. – a.d. 600). They serve as a status report on our understanding of the still largely enigmatic ancient kingdom, its regional structure, and connections to contemporaneous Isthmian sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to study the implementation of one of the dimensions of formative assessment i.e., assessment as learning. It has specifically attempted to investigate the practices of peer- and self-assessment among teachers in schools. Considering the recent growth in implementing formative assessment around the world; both in schools and higher learning institutions, this study aims to shed some light on the practices of it in schools, which can help policymakers adjust their policies in higher learning institutions. This study employed a quantitative method, in which a questionnaire is distributed among teachers in four states in the northern region of Malaysia. This paper offers insights into how teachers attempted to practise peer- and self-assessment in schools in the northern region of Malaysia. As this is a washback study, it not only reports the factors that were discovered, but it also attempts to report the factors mediating the washback. This study can be considered a contribution in terms of shaping the research into assessment as learning at its early stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proper and adequate dissemination of knowledge cannot be achieved without well-thought and properly designed curriculum in education system. Significance of it should not be undermined in every stage of education. This paper intends to analyze and cast light on the incomparable role of curriculum particularly, signifying its enhancement in secondary education. Meanwhile, it should be noted that for the further development of it, learners' participation is equally important as developer's participation in an effort to identify the nuances in curriculum, thus acknowledging that collaborative effort is needed in the prevention of them. Progressively, it analyzes four main phases of its development, including design, dissemination, evaluation, and implementation. At the end, this paper highlights that learners involvement in curriculum improvement is welcomed in secondary education based on the proper instructions and guidance of its developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly increased capacity for producing textual, visual and auditory outputs, yet there are ongoing concerns regarding the quality of those outputs. There is an urgent need to develop students' evaluative judgement – the capability to judge the quality of work of self and others – in recognition of this new reality. In this conceptual paper, we describe the intersection between evaluative judgement and generative AI with a view to articulating how assessment practices can help students learn to work productively with generative AI. We propose three foci: (1) developing evaluative judgement of generative AI outputs; (2) developing evaluative judgement of generative AI processes; and (3) generative AI assessment of student evaluative judgements. We argue for developing students' capabilities to identify and calibrate quality of work – uniquely human capabilities at a time of technological acceleration – through existing formative assessment strategies. These approaches circumvent and interrupt students' uncritical usage of generative AI. The relationship between evaluative judgement and generative AI is more than just the application of human judgement to machine outputs. We have a collective responsibility, as educators and learners, to ensure that humans do not relinquish their roles as arbiters of quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pilot study evaluated the student user experience of a performance indicator tool (PIT) for formative assessment of a cohort of fourth year medical undergraduates undertaking a 12 week rotation. Scoping and elaboration for the standalone web-based tool was based on the existing paper-based formative assessment system for which training and secure access was made available through the Virtual Campus at King's College London. Thirty-eight participants were randomly assigned to four groups. A baseline survey on formative assessment was carried out in Term 1 by all groups. In Term 2, two groups received the PIT and two the paper-based system. The PIT and paper-based groups were further split into those who gained formative assessment at the end, and those at the middle and end of rotation. Evaluation was by online student satisfaction questionnaires and focus groups. Term 1 baseline survey (n = 13) revealed a lack of one-to-one formal feedback. In evaluation by satisfaction questionnaire (n = 8) and focus groups (n = 30), students valued personalised feedback, and mid-rotation feedback allowed students to reflect prior to the end of rotation. However, some students felt that their tutor did not know them as well as others, thus adversely affecting their feedback. A functional web-based PIT was developed including tutor-student discussion spaces. Students found feedback very valuable. Those involved found the PIT easy to access and use, preferring formative assessment two thirds into the rotation. The PIT has wider applicability within the College for all healthcare faculties and may help improve student satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines Indonesia's 2013 national curriculum, implemented in 2019. The most significant change is the mandated use of formative assessment, which we argue is an example of policy borrowing, a trend also seen in many other countries globally. We argue that this policy has been adopted due to global and regional pressure on Indonesia to improve its education system. Alongside this, the 2013 curriculum has a strong emphasis on student attitudes, thereby promoting Indonesian national interests. Taking a holistic approach to our analysis, we follow Priestley et al.'s (2012) conceptual framing of sites of curriculum and draw on a wide range of data including policy texts, existing studies, media texts and teacher voice, to illustrate inconsistencies in the way formative assessment has been interpreted through the policy‐making process. Our analysis also highlights tensions between formative assessment and the Indonesian education system and cultural context. As we exemplify, curriculum making is a complex process involving many stakeholders; teachers are not mere enactors of policy and should not be viewed as the source of the 'problem' when issues occur. Our study will be of interest to others in examining the trend of diffused policy borrowing in non‐western settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As classroom diversity increases across educational domains, additional stress is placed on instructors to provide effective and personalised learning experiences. Formative assessments can inform instructors of learning differences between student cohorts and individual students, allowing adaptation of learning experiences to individual student needs. This work is motivated by the need for faculty to implement formative assessment strategies, such that instructors can adapt the classroom-assessment environment by identifying learning goals, categorising or tagging assessment questions by learning goal categories, and organising the assessment data by tag. This paper summarises how tag-organised assessment (TOA) may be implemented and visualised to facilitate formative assessment strategies. We validated our TOA approach by interviewing instructors on needs in classroom-assessment environments and the usefulness of TOA visualisations to address assessment needs. Instructors perceived TOA visualisations as beneficial for synchronising learning goals with assessment coverage, improving student feedback, and communicating learning goals and success criteria to students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a still young field, such as gamification, the multitude of research dedicated to the specific domain of gamification in education seems surprising. Some papers are focused on testing the formative and educational values of gamification; others concern its potentially negative impact or propose various ethical codes. The present study aims to combine in a coherent approach these three disparate types of research, starting from the typologies of game elements implemented and the results obtained (positives = efficiency; negatives = risk). Given that (1) the results appear to be rather fragile, contradictory, inconclusive or in a tense relationship with the two typological extremes (e.g. the same mixing of game elements, PBL, is seen as "positive" and "negative" in different studies), (2) sometimes positive results are accompanied by cautious views or by pointing out potential obstacles or risks, (3) the highlighted risks concern broad categories of issues, the ethical perspective and the adequacy to educationalformative purposes becomes extremely necessary. Assuming, however, that academic studies are as contradictory as self-referential, this research seeks to expand the perspective with an additional and necessary counterpoint: a quantitative research aimed at collecting the opinions of potential beneficiaries of gamification in educational context on the necessity and content of an ethical code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of connecting research evidence with practice referred to as evidence-informed practice (EIP) has received considerable critical attention in the field of education. However, assessment literature has failed to fully acknowledge the significance of this issue. This conceptual paper concentrates on the process of informing classroom assessment practices by policy-makers, researchers, and teachers. It draws on the important literature on EIP in education and its scarce literature in assessment to highlight a possible productive relationship between assessment research and practice. The paper aims to propose a set of principles as to address the tension between AfL research and practice by defining the roles of each party in the process based on cultural and contextual issues. Accordingly, a cyclical process of collaborative research conduction is proposed. This process provides policy-makers, researchers and practitioners with important implications for practicing AfL research evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report on the implementation of e-assessment in mathematics with a large cohort of Business Studies students in their first year at Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland. The assessment tool used was Numbas, a freely available e-assessment tool for mathematics developed at Newcastle University. The main motivation in introducing Numbas for this course was to increase attendance and engagement at tutorials but also to make regular assessments with feedback a practical possibility for large groups. In this paper we discuss the effect the introduction of Numbas had on student engagement, in particular on student participation, attendance, and on the student experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:There is worldwide interest in improving the effectiveness of teachers and teaching. This paper considers two strands of that interest. It revisits the impact of using enhanced feedback from teachers to pupils as a way of improving attainment, and it looks at the feasibility of teachers using research evidence to create their own interventions. Current evidence on the causal impact of effective feedback on learning is unclear: many studies have mixed results, are small in scale, lack randomisation or are not conducted in real classroom conditions.Purpose:The aim of this paper is to describe the experience of schools as they engage with research evidence to support their own enquiry into the effectiveness of feedback in the classroom.Research design:This study took place over one academic year, involving nine treatment schools in one local authority. The study involved teachers themselves using research findings to create an intervention, which took, as its focus, enhanced feedback in the classroom. Test results from these schools were compared to the results in 5 participating comparator schools, to the 49 other schools in the borough and to all state-funded primary schools in England.Results:Although teachers showed that they could engage with research evidence, the study indicated that the process was complex in practice. In addition, the independent impact evaluation suggested that enhanced feedback in itself does not necessarily lead to improved pupil test performance.Discussion and conclusions:The paper considers some of the challenges faced by teachers as they attempted to use research evidence, and discusses implications for schools wishing to use research evidence in practice. The findings of the study suggest that it may be feasible for practitioners to use research evidence to inform their own practice. However, to do it well would require clearer guidance, professional development and modelling of any strategies suggested. These findings have implications for policy on teacher development, and for the research community to make research outputs more comprehensible and accessible to research users. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Portfolios are widely used in New Zealand for documenting children's learning; there is now an increasing move to online ePortfolios. This article presents findings from a doctoral study which investigated the impact of the introduction of ePortfolios in an early childhood education setting where traditional paper-based portfolios were previously used as the formative assessment tool for children's learning. The findings demonstrate that a significant benefit of the ePortfolio system used in this study was the ways in which they could support children to revisit their learning and become involved in their own formative assessment. This is described as recalling, reconnecting and restarting. Through participating in these processes, children become active contributors to their own learning journeys which is a significant factor of formative assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a pilot study with advanced EFL learners in Germany who were asked to use ProWritingAid (PWA) for a composition task in a German comprehensive school. PWA is an Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) tool that provides writers with feedback on grammar, spelling mistakes, and writing style during the writing and editing process. Students' engagement with PWA's suggestions is documented with the help of screen capture software and a change tracker sheet. A coding grid, based on the three dimensions of learner engagement with AWE feedback, is developed in the process of analysing the data. Results indicate that there is cognitive engagement with AWE feedback even when learners reject suggestions for correction. It will be discussed whether episodes of cognitive engagement with AWE can be conceptualised as engagement with language according to Svalberg. When EFL learners use a computer program to evaluate their writing, they receive feedback to help them improve. This feedback is called Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) feedback. It can show them what they did well and what they can work on. This study explores how advanced EFL learners deal with the suggestions from an AWE tool. EFL learners who engage with AWE feedback actively read and consider the suggestions given by the program. They use this feedback to make changes and enhance their writing skills. By paying attention to AWE feedback, EFL learners can become better at writing in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine the postgraduate papers on formative assessment in Turkey from a thematic perspective. The thematic content analysis method was used in the study. The study group consisted of 38 (27 master's theses and 11 doctoral theses) approved doctoral theses. These dissertations were classified under 5 main themes (studies describing formative assessment competencies of teachers or pre-service teachers, studies planning the development of formative assessment components of teachers or pre-service teachers, studies examining the effects of formative assessment on student outcomes, studies on factors influencing formative assessment practices, other studies on formative assessment) were analyzed in terms of different variables. Analyzing these works according to the main topics, it was found that the studies describing the formative assessment competencies of teachers or prospective teachers and the studies planning to improve the formative assessment components of teachers or prospective teachers were the least in number. It was found that most of the studies on formative assessment were studies that examined the effects of formative assessment on student outcomes, and that these effects were mostly performance on cognitive characteristics and attitudes on affective characteristics. The most commonly used method in the studies was mixed methods, and the least used method was action research. While interviews and scales were mostly used as data collection instruments in the studies, content analysis, descriptive analysis, and t-test were frequently preferred among the data analysis methods. Suggestions for future research on formative assessment were presented at the end of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major change in the delivery of knowledge and assessment practice worldwide and currently, a web)based formative online assessment has become the key feature in the teaching/learning process. This form of assessment arose due to the limitations of paper-based formative assessments in terms of delayed and inadequate feedback. Although online formative assessments have a sound theoretical basis in higher education settings, data to establish their educational benefits are still lacking. Thus, this study was conducted to identify biomedical students’ perceptions on the significance of online quizzes towards enhancing their understanding of the subject taught. The researchers developed a suitable questionnaire based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) using Likert scale-type questions to capture the perceptions of Biomedical Science degree students on the use of online quizzes. The quantitative data was then analyzed using SPSS version 23.). The findings from the research shows clear evidence that the respondents’ have an overall positive view on the perceived usefulness of the use of online quizzes with responses ranging from 58.8% to 90.2%. The findings on perceived challenges were enlightening as the respondents’ highlighted those technical difficulties and accessibility to hardware and software were among the challenges faced most. The researchers are assured that online quizzes are perceived positively by the respondents’ and it is advocated that they are used more extensively in the teaching and learning at institutions of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A carefully constructed method of assessment using short, formative, invigilated in-tutorial quizzes is investigated to see how successful this method is compared to previous assessment tasks. We look at whether student engagement increased, given that students who enter university often face issues with the transition from school, and engagement is a factor affecting their success. First-year mathematics courses see a wide variety of students from various mathematical backgrounds who may not know or have little experience with, how to approach their tertiary study. This paper presents a way of using assessment to engage and motivate students who are studying first-year mathematics at university. Assessment is an essential feature of student learning and it is important to use it effectively to benefit the education and learning practices of students. Our study focuses on a particular method of assessment which we found to be successful. We will introduce this method and analyse its effectiveness using both quantitative and qualitative data obtained from a cohort of students enrolled in a large first-year mathematics unit in an Australian university. Furthermore, we give the academic a list of guidelines should they wish to adapt this assessment into their own teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formative assessment has become an increasingly popular topic in educational reform since the publication of Black and Wiliam's (1998) highly influential review article. In China, formative assessment has been promoted by the Ministry of Education in its curriculum standards for over two decades. A lack of implementation in classrooms has been attributed to the lack of assessment literacy among classroom teachers. A 12-week professional development program was designed and implemented for a group of five secondary school EFL teachers in China aiming at developing their classroom-based formative assessment literacy. The program took the form of collaborative action research in which a researcher joined the teachers to form a community of practice for continuing professional development. This paper focuses on one teacher's growth in assessment literacy for classroom-based formative assessment. Classroom video recordings and interviews were transcribed and coded using NVivo 12. Baseline data indicated that the teacher lacked the knowledge and beliefs needed to conduct formative assessment. She did not have clear targets for teaching, learning and assessment; and she did not make any targets clear to her students. In addition, the teacher's assessment practices did not aim to improve student subject core competencies as stipulated in the senior secondary English language curriculum. By the end of the program, the teacher's knowledge, beliefs and practices in formative assessment were significantly enhanced. In particular, her goal setting for classroom teaching, learning and assessment was intentionally aligned with the development of subject core competencies. More cycles of formative assessment practices were found to help students close the learning gaps and achieve their learning goals. These findings lend encouraging support to the feasibility of teachers developing formative assessment literacy within a continuing professional development framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past years, higher education institutions have been exploring different mechanisms to adapt their learning and teaching practices to increase students' engagement. One of the proposals has been to reuse Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) as Small Online Private Courses (SPOCs), or as complementary resources in traditional courses through blended learning practices, such as flipped classroom. However, the integration of online courses as a complement to face-to-face courses poses some challenges. First, students are not used to such blended learning approaches and it is generally difficult for teachers to motivate them to access online resources for the preparation of face-to-face sessions. Second, students are not used to the dynamics of blended learning scenarios, which are less teacher-centered and require their active participation. We propose the use of the mobile application MyMOOCSpace (MMS) to meet these challenges and increase students' motivation and use of learning resources in blended learning courses that use SPOCs as a complement. MMS is a mobile learning application based on gamification mechanisms to promote collaboration and motivation of students in the use of digital resources as a complement to blended learning courses. In this paper, we present the results of a quasi-experiment in a blended course with 294 students that uses a SPOC as a complement, with the aim to assess the effect of MMS on students' motivation and learning resources consumption. In particular, the behavior of two groups of students with the main digital resources of the SPOC (videos and formative assessments) was analyzed: one using the MMS (GTest group), and the other not using MMS (GTrad group). The results suggest that the use of MMS had a positive correlation with the videos consumption, besides increasing student' interaction with assessment exercises in the SPOC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research data services have become a key feature of academic libraries. In this paper, we provide an internal assessment of consulting reach and effectiveness for our Data Services provided by the University Libraries at Virginia Tech and using client records from 2016 to 2020. Through this assessment, we explore how service growth and reach across Virginia Tech has evolved with time. We also look more closely at these aspects for one college and discuss how we will use this data to assess the impact of our services. Finally, through the lens of client outcomes, we examine the trends of client interactions over the term of the study. Initially, we envisioned a successful service as one useful to the largest number of entities (primarily colleges and institutes) across Virginia Tech. However, analysis of the data we have gathered over the past 4 years leads us to consider targeting our service growth where it might be most useful. Rather than prioritizing services that are useful to the largest number of researchers, we instead could (and perhaps should) prioritize engagement with researchers and research communities for whom our assistance can make the largest positive impact on their research projects. This assessment of our client data demonstrates the utility of detailed client management records for periodic formative and summative assessment of research data services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the types of assessment in the modern school. The importance of formative assessment for the formation and development of personality, to achieve the designed learning outcomes, their correction and selection of tasks for individual work by each pupil to improve results is analyzed. Models of teaching in a modern school are described, and those that promote the development of individuals with «growth intelligence», for which formative assessment is used, are identified. The authour determines the principles and functions of formative assessment, the methods of formative assessment and the list of most often used methods in practice by teachers. Particular attention is paid to the benefits of using digital tools for formative assessment and to the fact of their active use by teachers, especially in blended learning. The paper proposes to design the assessment process: designing assessment by a teacher in a course and in a topic with the creation of a visualized plan for pupils and designing assessment in class with pupils through joint setting of diagnostic goals, involving pupils in planning learning activities in accordance with principles of systematicity, planning, differentiation. The value of feedback for the formation of an individual educational trajectory is determined and the conditions of its effectiveness are given. The paper notes the importance of both formative and final assessment and their integrated use: formative assessment – to provide feedback and correction of learning, final – to record learning outcomes. Conclusions are made on improving the progress of pupils in learning when planning a course, topic and lesson, which includes assessment planning, with the active position of each, conscious participation in the creation of the educational process, adjusting their own trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer-aided assessment systems are increasingly used in education for both formative and summative assessment. Example of such a system from the area of mathematics education is the platform Maple T. A. (Testing and Assessment), which was developed specially for assessment in mathematics. The paper is focused on the efficiency of the use of the Maple T. A. platform to students' performance in classes of mathematical analysis (calculus). For this reason, the pedagogical experiment was conducted on the first and later second year undergraduate students of teaching mathematics taking into consideration their approaches to learning and studying. The research results include cluster analysis of students' approaches to learning and studying and analysis of students' performance in their homework assignments and final tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many educators focus on the cognitive and/or cultural/contextual deficits that students bring to learning tasks, which are oftentimes used to explain poor academic performance. Metacognition that can be taught and learned for improving learning performance is regarded as an alternative. The purpose of this year-long collaborative action research is to describe how a culturally relevant metacognitive formative assessment strategy called TALE (Take Another Look Everyone) worked in a rural 5th grade mathematics classroom (N = 16). A variety of data was collected, recorded, co-transcribed, co-reflected, and systematically co-analyzed. Major findings were that students' formative test scores substantially increased and two cases of students with different backgrounds, including Native American culture, and academic levels, demonstrated different ways of improving mathematics proficiency. This paper concluded that students learned better when given an opportunity to metacognitively think about mistakes in a highly respectful classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim/Purpose Providing both formative and summative assessment that allows students to learn from their mistakes is difficult in large classes. This paper describes an automated assessment system suitable for courses with even 100 or more students. Background Assessment is a vital part of any course of study. Ideally students should be given formative assessment with feedback during the course so students and tutors can identify weaknesses and focus on what needs improvement before summative assessment, which results in a grade. This paper describes and automated assessment system that lessens the burden of providing formative assessment in large classes. Methodology We used Checkpoint, a web-based automated assessment system, to grade assignments in a number of different computer science courses. Contribution The students come from diverse backgrounds, with a wide range of ages, previous qualifications and technical skills, and our approach allows the students to work at their own pace according to their individual needs, submitting their solutions as many times as they wish up to a deadline, using feedback provided by the system to help identify and correct their mistakes before trying again. Findings Use of automated assessment allows us to achieve the goals of both summative and formative assessment: we allow students to learn from their mistakes without incurring a penalty, while at the same time awarding them a grade to validate their efforts. The students have an overwhelmingly positive view about our use of automated assessment, and their comments support our views on the assessment process. Recommendations for Practitioners Because of the increasing number of students in today's courses, we recommend using automated assessment wherever possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a still young field, such as gamification, the multitude of research dedicated to the specific domain of gamification in education seems surprising. Some papers are focused on testing the formative and educational values of gamification; others concern its potentially negative impact or propose various ethical codes. The present study aims to combine in a coherent approach these three disparate types of research, starting from the typologies of game elements implemented and the results obtained (positives = efficiency; negatives = risk). Given that (1) the results appear to be rather fragile, contradictory, inconclusive or in a tense relationship with the two typological extremes (e.g. the same mixing of game elements, PBL, is seen as "positive" and "negative" in different studies), (2) sometimes positive results are accompanied by cautious views or by pointing out potential obstacles or risks, (3) the highlighted risks concern broad categories of issues, the ethical perspective and the adequacy to educational-formative purposes becomes extremely necessary. Assuming, however, that academic studies are as contradictory as self-referential, this research seeks to expand the perspective with an additional and necessary counterpoint: a quantitative research aimed at collecting the opinions of potential beneficiaries of gamification in educational context on the necessity and content of an ethical code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine whether early warning signals from accounting courses (such as early engagement and early formative performance) are predictive of first-year progression outcomes, and whether this data is more predictive than personal data (such as gender and prior achievement). Using a machine learning approach, results from a sample of 609 first-year students from a continental European university show that early warnings from accounting courses are strongly predictive of first-year progression, and more so than data available at the start of the first year. In addition, the further the student is along their journey of the first undergraduate year, the more predictive the accounting engagement and performance data becomes for the prediction of programme progression outcomes. Our study contributes to the study of early warning signals for dropout through machine learning in accounting education, suggests implications for accounting educators, and provides useful pointers for further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formative assessment is considered to be helpful in students' learning support and teaching design. Following Aufschnaiter's and Alonzo's framework, formative assessment practices of teachers can be subdivided into three practices: eliciting evidence, interpreting evidence and responding. Since students' conceptions are judged to be important for meaningful learning across disciplines, teachers are required to assess their students' conceptions. The focus of this article lies on the discussion of learning analytics for supporting the assessment of students' conceptions in class. The existing and potential contributions of learning analytics are discussed related to the named formative assessment framework in order to enhance the teachers' options to consider individual students' conceptions. We refer to findings from biology and computer science education on existing assessment tools and identify limitations and potentials with respect to the assessment of students' conceptions. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Students' conceptions are considered to be important for learning processes, but interpreting evidence for learning with respect to students' conceptions is challenging for teachers.Assessment tools have been developed in different educational domains for teaching practice.Techniques from artificial intelligence and machine learning have been applied for automated assessment of specific aspects of learning.What does the paper add Findings on existing assessment tools from two educational domains are summarised and limitations with respect to assessment of students' conceptions are identified.Relevent data that needs to be analysed for insights into students' conceptions is identified from an educational perspective.Potential contributions of learning analytics to support the challenging task to elicit students' conceptions are discussed.Implications for practice and/or policy Learning analytics can enhance the eliciting of students' conceptions.Based on the analysis of existing works, further exploration and developments of analysis techniques for unstructured text and multimodal data are desirable to support the eliciting of students' conceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the potential of a learning analytics (LA) based formative assessment to construct personalised teaching sequences in Mathematics for 5th‐grade primary school students. A total of 127 students from Spanish public schools participated in the study. The quasi‐experimental study was conducted over the course of six sessions, in which both control and experimental groups participated in a teaching sequence based on mathematical problems. In each session, both groups used audience response systems to record their responses to mathematical tasks about fractions. After each session, students from the control group were given generic homework on fractions—the same activities for all the participants—while students from the experimental group were given a personalised set of activities. The provision of personalised homework was based on the students' errors detected from the use of the LA‐based formative assessment. After the intervention, the results indicate a higher student level of understanding of the concept of fractions in the experimental group compared to the control group. Related to motivational dimensions, results indicated that instruction using audience response systems has a positive effect compared to regular mathematics classes. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Developing an understanding of fractions is one of the most challenging concepts in elementary mathematics and a solid predictor of future achievements in mathematics.Learning analytics (LA) has the potential to provide quality, functional data for assessing and supporting learners' difficulties.Audience response systems (ARS) are one of the most practical ways to collect data for LA in classroom environments.There is a scarcity of field research implementations on LA mediated by ARS in real contexts of elementary school classrooms.What this paper adds Empirical evidence about how LA‐based formative assessments can enable personalised homework to support student understanding of fractions.Personalised homework based on an LA‐based formative assessment improves the students' comprehension of fractions.Using ARS for the teaching of fractions has a positive effect in terms of student motivation.Implications for practice and/or policy Teachers should be given LA/ARS tools that allow them to quickly provide students with personalised mathematical instruction.Researchers should continue exploring these potentially beneficial educational implementations in other areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulation‐based learning provides students with unique opportunities to develop key procedural and teamwork skills in close‐to‐authentic physical learning and training environments. Yet, assessing students' performance in such situations can be challenging and mentally exhausting for teachers. Multimodal learning analytics can support the assessment of simulation‐based learning by making salient aspects of students' activities visible for evaluation. Although descriptive analytics have been used to study students' motor behaviours in simulation‐based learning, their validity and utility for assessing performance remain unclear. This study aims at addressing this knowledge gap by investigating how indoor positioning analytics can be used to generate meaningful insights about students' tasks and collaboration performance in simulation‐based learning. We collected and analysed the positioning data of 304 healthcare students, organised in 76 teams, through correlation, predictive and epistemic network analyses. The primary findings were (1) large correlations between students' spatial‐procedural behaviours and their group performances; (2) predictive learning analytics that achieved an acceptable level (0.74 AUC) in distinguishing between low‐performing and high‐performing teams regarding collaboration performance; and (3) epistemic networks that can be used for assessing the behavioural differences across multiple teams. We also present the teachers' qualitative evaluation of the utility of these analytics and implications for supporting formative assessment in simulation‐based learning. Practitioner notesWhat is currently known about this topic Assessing students' performance in simulation‐based learning is often challenging and mentally exhausting.The combination of learning analytics and sensing technologies has the potential to uncover meaningful behavioural insights in physical learning spaces.Observational studies have suggested the potential value of analytics extracted from positioning data as indicators of highly‐effective behaviour in simulation‐based learning.What this paper adds Indoor positioning analytics for supporting teachers' formative assessment and timely feedback on students' group/team‐level performance in simulation‐based learning.Empirical evidence supported the potential use of epistemic networks for assessing the behavioural differences between low‐performing and high‐performing teams.Teachers' positively validated the utility of indoor positioning analytics in supporting reflective practices and formative assessment in simulation‐based learning.Implications for practitioners Indoor positioning tracking and spatial analysis can be used to investigate students' teamwork and task performance in simulation‐based learning.Predictive learning analytics should be developed based on features that have direct relevance to teachers' learning design.Epistemic networks analysis and comparison plots can be useful in identifying and assessing behavioural differences across multiple teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]