Research On The Impacting Mechanism Of Formative Assessment On Undergraduates’ Learning Outcome

With the attention of society to the quality of undergraduate education and teaching,how to effectively apply academic evaluation has become a difficult problem to be solved urgently in teaching practice.The concept of "student-centered" requires that the Undergraduates’ learning process and learning outcome be emphasized.Formative assessment has become a well-recognized evaluation method in theory and practice.However,there are few studies on the validity of formative assessment and how it impacts learning outcome.Domestic research mostly stays at the stage of empirical cognition and lacks empirical evidence.Based on this,this study chooses to use the data of the 2018 H University Student Survey of Learning and Development to explore the impacting mechanism of formative assessment on learning outcome.By sorting out the relevant literature,this study constructs a hypothetical model of the impacting mechanism of formative assessment on learning outcome with student engagement as a mediating variable.In this study,the path analysis method of structural equation model is used to verify the hypothesis model.The path analysis can effectively test the hypothetical causality between variables,and directly obtain the direct,indirect and total effects of independent variables affecting dependent variables.Firstly,the model fitness of the hypothesis model and the indirect effect of mediating variables are tested.Then,multi-group analysis was carried out to examine the differences among different groups of disciplines,such as engineering,science,liberal arts and medicine.Finally,it explores the impacting mechanism of formative assessment on learning outcome in specific disciplines.The results show that formative assessment has a positive and significant impact on learning outcome,and the mediating effect of student engagement is significant.Compared with the direct effect of formative assessment on learning outcome,formative assessment tends to impact learning outcome indirectly through active learning,curriculum learning,teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction.The impacting mechanism of formative assessment on learning outcome is different in different disciplines.Among the different groups,such as engineering,science,liberal arts and medicine,there are significant differences in the specific path of the formative assessment on learning outcome.Indicators of student engagement have different influences in different subject groups.By analyzing and discussing the results of the data,this study finds that: first,the role of students’ engagement in part of the intermediary formative assessment on learning outcome.Among them,students’ initiative in learning is the most important intermediary;the role of student-student interaction has limitations.Secondly,the impacting mechanism of formative assessment on learning outcome has disciplinary differences.Thirdly,the effectiveness of formative assessment may be disturbed by students’ self-regulated learning ability,teachers’ teaching support,institutional environment of colleges and universities.In order to promote the effective application of formative assessment in practice,the author puts forward the following suggestions: Firstly,using relevant systems to improve the teaching and learning situation of formative assessment.Secondly,improve the ability of teachers to apply formative assessment.Thirdly,we should actively guide and supervise the process of students’ engagement in learning.Finally,improve the feedback and communication mechanism about teachers’ teaching.