Better Formative Assessment

Formative assessment has been defined as the process "to recognize and respond to student learning to enhance that learning during the learning." Formative assessment helps teachers identify strengths and weaknesses in their students' understanding, focuses students' attention on relevant information and ideas, and provides scaffolds that guide and support student progress (NRC 2011). Formative assessment is an ongoing process in which teachers typically engage in multiple cycles of: (1) eliciting students' ideas; (2) noticing the substance of students' thinking; (3) interpreting to make sense of students' ideas, and (4) acting to guide and support student learning. How teachers approach formative assessment influences students' conceptual understanding, as well as their attitudes, motivation, and effort, particularly among underperforming learners. Research indicates that meeting the new vision of the "Next Generation Science Standards" requires shifting teaching practices from more prescriptive approaches that emphasize "discrete facts with a focus on breadth over depth" toward more responsive approaches that provide "time for students to engage in scientific investigations and argumentation and to achieve depth of understanding of the core ideas presented." In each of the four dimensions listed, a teacher's practices can be characterized along a continuum from more prescriptive to more responsive. This article, using results from investigations of chemistry teachers' practices, suggests ways to implement more responsive approaches to formative assessment in the science classroom.