| Education has experienced a shift in beliefs about learning, curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The dominant theory of learning maintains that learners actively construct knowledge rather than passively assimilate it. Curricula and instructional practices have increasingly reflected this shift. Classroom assessment however, has not kept up with these shifts. Overall, classroom assessment continues to be summative, focused on evaluation, reporting progress and assigning grades.Consistent with these shifts formative assessment---assessment of learning during instruction to inform ongoing instruction---has been recognized as an integral part of the instructional process. While there are suggestions and ideas as to how formative assessment should be implemented there are few studies of how it is implemented. This study investigated formative assessment as it occurred in classroom practice. The study built on the work of Atkin, Black, and Coffey (2001) and Tunstall and Gipps (1996) by describing the components of the formative assessment process and organizing the components into a comprehensive model of the process in action. |
