Formative assessment. A step forward in education

Covid-19 has been a dreadful experience for the whole world. There is not a single country or community that hasn't been affected, mourned those lost to the disease and seen their way of life shattered. Pandemic is especially difficult for the youth. The first lockdown of March 2020 and subsequent interruptions of school systems forced teachers to meet their students online.

This new form of education proved to be terra incognita to most tutors, who suddenly had to adapt to technologies they previously chose to ignore. Months went by, and after solving the initial problems, schools resumed their role in a brand new, digital environment.

Despite what some people said, teachers' mindsets changed. They acquired new skillsets, adapted to the modern rules of online classes and proved all sceptics wrong. We need to recognise and reward school staff's efforts but, at the same time, it raises the question - could we ask for more? We introduced new tools but isn't it time to introduce a more progressive approach to education itself? For example, the formative assessment?

The idea

The formative assessment came into being in the late 1960s. It was a time of revolutionary changes for the western world. A time when young people opposed the rules of conservative society, demanded to have their say and be heard.

The developments in the methodology of education lead academics to the conclusion that summative assessments used in those days tended to have a negative effect on students' performance and well-being. It was easy for a child at any given level of the K-12 education to interpret the result other than complete success as a complete failure. Apart from that, the summative assessment provided no guidance and no motivation for further learning. It wasn't any good in helping the underachievers, thus making the division between them and the 'good students' even deeper. It was hurting pupils, even though scars were invisible to the eye.

To remedy this, a new education system came to life. One centred on principles such as:

• reducing the negative impact of evaluation,

• providing sensitive and constructive feedback,

• motivating the learners,

• presenting guidance on how to improve,

• recognizing the efforts of all students.

We see this process as a circle because it is never-ending:

Formative assessment works outstandingly on all levels of the K-12 process. When implemented in elementary education, it helps to narrow the gap between high and low achievers. We must remember that the first six grades constitute a crucial moment in a child’s development, and the impact of failures at this stage means they hardly catch up later on. Students over the age of 10 develop abilities to embrace feedback from the teacher and focus on learning for effects. At this level, formative assessment becomes even more crucial as it builds confidence and saves time by pinpointing weak spots.

The challenge

The only problem with the formative assessment is that it is a troublesome and time-consuming process. After all, grading 20 tests on a scale from A to F is much easier than writing 20 detailed descriptions with guidelines for the future. Metaphorically speaking, many teachers, when given the choice of a stick or a carrot, prefer the stick simply because it is easier.

The opportunity to finally introduce formative assessment on a wide scale came with the onset of Covid-19 pandemics. Coronavirus offered us an extraordinary chance to reboot the old and failing education system. It also gave schools a much-needed push to fully embrace online apps that facilitate teaching and evaluating knowledge or skills. Computer-assisted learning is an ideal environment for formative assessment. Whether in the connected classroom or remote schooling, there are endless possibilities to teaching, evaluating and providing students with valuable feedback.

The implementation

Formative assessment works perfectly with advanced online tools, such as Testportal. The variety of this app's features focus on providing the assessor with as much information as possible about the test-taker. Testportal goes beyond simply marking the test as passed or failed. Extensive analyses available to the teacher can be immensely advantageous in several fields. Firstly, when it comes to pointing out a student's strong and weak points. Secondly, when measuring progress in any given time frame.

This online assessment tool operates on many levels simultaneously. It allows for the rapid collection and analysis of student-provided data. It also utilises complex algorithms to compare multiple evaluations to show progress in many specific areas over time. With such information available, teachers can easily provide their pupils with detailed, constructive and motivating feedback. That, in turn, facilitates improvement and thus constitutes the backbone of the formative assessment.

Descriptive assessments, based on the feedback from an online tool, goes beyond helping the students. Benefits for the teachers are also significant here. They can evaluate their own teaching skills and notice their failings in time to change the way they feed information to the class. Even a slight change in attitude can be crucial to making the subject more comprehensible to the class.

The future

The formative assessment is more egalitarian and offers better chances for all students, especially those struggling ones. To change the system, we must be going in two directions at the same time. First of all, teachers already in the education systems must be trained and encouraged to implement the formative assessment. At the same time, universities must embrace the same idea and teach future tutors how to improve the teaching-learning processes with online tools. It is a one-stop solution to both problems. It offers a wide range of features that make teachers' life much easier. At the same, it facilitates the learning process by showing students what to do in a professional yet friendly way.

We have to put stress on the connection between teaching and learning and how one affects the other. Both must undergo constant evaluation and adjustment to the current needs. Teachers' role in this process is paramount, and it is their responsibility to monitor each student's progress. The automation of feedback from online assessment tools opens the door to the education of the future.