Understand the difference between formative and summative assessment. Learn practical strategies for assessment for learning, effective feedback, and how to balance both approaches in your classroom.
Understanding the difference between formative and summative assessment is essential for effective teaching. Formative assessment, often called assessment for learning, provides ongoing feedback during the learning process. Summative assessment measures achievement at the end of a unit or course. Research by Black and Wiliam demonstrates that effective use of formative assessment can significantly improve student outcomes, particularly for lower-attaining pupils. This guide explores both approaches and provides practical strategies for implementing assessment for learning in your classroom.
| Aspect | Formative Assessment | Summative Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ongoing assessment that provides feedback during the learning process, also called assessment for learning | Assessment that measures achievement at the end of a unit or course, also called assessment of learning |
| Key Feature | Provides real-time insights and continuous feedback to adjust instruction and support self-regulated learning | Determines overall academic performance at a specific endpoint |
| Example | Diagnostic questions, exit tickets, quizzes, interactive tasks, modern assessment tools, key questions | End-of-unit tests, final exams, standardized tests, course grades |
| Classroom Use | Taken frequently during regular classes to monitor progress and identify knowledge gaps | Conducted at the end of learning periods to evaluate overall achievement |
| Best For | Supporting individual needs, improving lower-attaining pupils' progress, and guiding next steps in learning | Measuring final achievement, grading, and determining if learning objectives have been met |
While summative assessments are useful in determining overall academic performance, formative assessments offer real-time insights into student learning, allowing teachers to adjust their instruction and better support individual needs for continuous improvement.
Many people consider ‘assessment’ as a test. But, this term is wider than that. There are two main categories of assessment: formative assessment and summative assessment. These types of assessment are sometimes called A 'for' L and A 'of' L, respectively.
At some level, both types of appraisal are conducted in the classroom but they have two different purposes. To maximise the effectiveness of each type of classroom practice, it is essential to understand the basic functions of these appraisals and how each of these assessment types contributes to the student motivation and learning process.
Providing comprehensive feedback for students is a fundamental part of lessons. In this article, we will demonstrate some engaging ways of going beyond the standard multiple-choice questions. Although plenary questions are a good way of gauging what students have understood, there are more interactive strategies that get to the essence of what pupil understanding.
Formative activities are taken more frequently and during regular classes for insightful purposes, allowing educators and students to assess pupil progress and attainment levels more often. Formative appraisals can start from diagnostic questions, demonstrating what gaps may exist in knowledge and what a student already knows. Knowing what has been learned to date, makes it easier for both the student and the teacher to plan the next stages of learning. As the learning proceeds, further appraisals specify whether instructional methods need to be modified to extend or reinforce students' current theoretical knowledge.
Formative tasks may be carried out through strategies such as key questions, exit tickets, quizzes, tasks, and many other types of formative review activities. Most of the formative appraisal activities are not recorded by the teachers, except possibly in the lesson plan drawn up to identify the next steps implied.
For formative tasks, the main functions of assessment include the monitoring of student theoretical knowledge and offering ongoing feedback to students and staff. Productive appraisal activities are the ongoing check of knowledge and skills. If designed properly, an ongoing assessment helps learners identify their weaknesses and strengths, and it can help students improve their self-regulating skills so that they gain their education properly. Constructive checks of understanding also provide information to the teachers about the lesson planning and subject matter learners are struggling with so that enough support can be provided through individual lessons.
Checks of understanding can be teacher-led, self or peer-assessment. These are usually low stakes assessments and mostly carry no grade, which may discourage the learners from completing or getting each of the individual pupils fully engaged with the task.
Summative exams can be used to assess pupil progress more formally, academic achievement and skill acquisition at the end of a specified instructional period, usually after completing a key stage, course, unit, project, program, semester or educational year.
External tests are usually used for summative purposes, to sum up what a student has learned at the end of a specific time, relative to the relevant national curriculum and learning objectives. The period of time allocated for exams or SATs will vary, depending upon what the education system wants to assess.
A summative task can be an observation, a cold written task, or a discussion. It can be recorded in a written format, in the form of photographs, through audio recording or any other visual media. Whichever way it is used, the insights can be used to indicate what has been learnt. Exams perform summative functions by providing a summary of what a student has attained at a specific point in time and may furnish cohort and individual data for informing stakeholders (such as parents or school leaders etc.) and tracking pupil progress against benchmark data or standardized tests.
These exams frequently have high stakes and learners tend to give priority to external tests over A4L activities. According to key figures in the world of education, feedback from both forms of appraisal should be used by the teachers and children to guide their activities and efforts in the upcoming courses.
Education experts claim that an over-dependence on testing at the end of an element of study may help in achieving good grades, but offers very little response to students for improving performance before reaching the end of the programme/module. Thus maintaining a balance between summative and formative assessments is necessary.
student assessment methods" width="auto" height="auto" id="">
Formative assessment offers numerous benefits by enhancing the learning experience for both students and teachers. By providing continuous feedback, formative assessment supports long-term retention and cumulative knowledge acquisition, ensuring students grasp essential concepts.
Additionally, formative assessment informs curriculum planning by identifying areas where students require further assistance, allowing teachers to tailor their instruction to better meet individual needs.
In essence, formative assessment plays a vital role in fostering a dynamic and responsive educational environment, which ultimately leads to improved student outcomes.
To really advance school attainment, we need to build upon what a child already knows. When school leaders are engaged in national curriculum planning we are attempting to sequence a form of knowledge acquisition and skills progression. If a child has gaps in their understanding, this may hinder their progression.
Using critical questions and other mixed-assessment approaches helps us build a picture of the classes current understanding. These types of activities help us inform curriculum planning and ensure that we have achieved maximum coverage of the curriculum. The following are some of the most significant benefits of formative assessments:
Research-based evidence about student achievement shows that summative judgments play an important role in developing memory. Retrieval practice, a powerful learning strategy, aids in consolidating students' memory by actively recalling information from their minds.
This process strengthens neural connections, making it easier to access the information in the future. By frequently engaging in retrieval practice, students reinforce their memory and enhance long-term retention. Additionally, the process helps identify any gaps in understanding, allowing for targeted revision and improved comprehension.
In summary, retrieval practice supports the development of durable and efficient memory networks, promoting deeper learning and lasting knowledge acquisition.
It is possible to engage students in formative assessments by:
The process of designing and developing classroom-based checks can be a creative endeavour: what must be assessed, using summative or/ and formative assessment? What are the appropriate measures and functions of the assessment? And, are the assessments aligned with the course outline and learning outcomes?
Research-based evidence about student achievement shows that the assessment design and quality the quality of its outcomes, and ultimately, whether those outcomes are suited to make significant decisions. Classroom-based assessments serve as the key components of the national curriculum. At Structural Learning, we have seen many primary schools use the block building methodology to find out what children understand (build what you know). Using the toolkit creatively in interactive lessons allows educators to embed learning reviews into teaching methods.
Any form of evaluation, carried out through formal or informal procedures, helps secondary and primary school students learn. Performing a classroom assessment provides an opportunity for students to see how they are performing in a class. Both formative and summative strategies are usually carried out at an individual level but there is no reason why group work cannot be used to monitor progress. Hearing a student articulating their ideas and demonstrating situation-specific skills can give us a lot of information.
A teacher can assess students attainment levels by performing a straightforward test and use the results to inform learning and teaching methods (thus also having formative advantages). To summarise, many interactive lessons provide us with opportunities to gauge a pupils understanding. Whether you are asking critical questions or using a graphic organiser to help students communicate their understanding, you are figuring out the next steps a pupil has to take. It is also worth acknowledging how powerful feedback is as a classroom tool, the EEF toolkit which unpicks the best ways to advance school attainment consistently places this pedagogy high up the performance tables.
Formative assessment provides ongoing feedback during the learning process to help adjust instruction, whilst summative assessment measures achievement at the end of a unit or course. Formative assessment is often called 'assessment for learning' and focuses on real-time insights, whereas summative assessment is 'assessment of learning' that determines overall academic performance at a specific endpoint.
Teachers can use interactive strategies such as diagnostic questioning, key questions, quizzes, and tasks that reveal deeper pupil understanding. These methods should focus on identifying knowledge gaps and providing real-time insights rather than simply checking surface-level comprehension through standard plenary questions.
Summative assessments are typically high stakes with grades attached, whilst formative assessments are usually low stakes and carry no grade. This creates an imbalance where pupils focus more on external tests rather than the ongoing learning activities that could actually improve their understanding and performance.
Research by Black and Wiliam shows that effective formative assessment can significantly improve outcomes for lower-attaining pupils more than any intervention programme. It helps identify individual weaknesses and strengths whilst supporting self-regulating skills, allowing teachers to provide targeted support through individual lessons.
Diagnostic questions reveal knowledge gaps that may secretly sabotage curriculum sequencing and future learning by showing what pupils already know and what they still need to learn. This information helps teachers plan the next stages of learning more effectively and modify instructional methods to reinforce or extend current knowledge.
Formative assessment tools include diagnostic questions, exit tickets, quizzes, interactive tasks, and ongoing observations during regular classes. Summative assessment examples are end-of-unit tests, final exams, standardised tests, SATs, and course grades that measure overall achievement at specific time points.
Teachers should use formative assessments frequently during regular lessons to monitor progress and provide ongoing feedback, whilst using summative assessments at appropriate endpoints to measure overall achievement. Education experts warn that over-dependence on end-of-unit testing may achieve good grades but offers little opportunity for students to improve performance before the programme concludes.
Understanding the difference between formative and summative assessment is essential for effective teaching. Formative assessment, often called assessment for learning, provides ongoing feedback during the learning process. Summative assessment measures achievement at the end of a unit or course. Research by Black and Wiliam demonstrates that effective use of formative assessment can significantly improve student outcomes, particularly for lower-attaining pupils. This guide explores both approaches and provides practical strategies for implementing assessment for learning in your classroom.
| Aspect | Formative Assessment | Summative Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ongoing assessment that provides feedback during the learning process, also called assessment for learning | Assessment that measures achievement at the end of a unit or course, also called assessment of learning |
| Key Feature | Provides real-time insights and continuous feedback to adjust instruction and support self-regulated learning | Determines overall academic performance at a specific endpoint |
| Example | Diagnostic questions, exit tickets, quizzes, interactive tasks, modern assessment tools, key questions | End-of-unit tests, final exams, standardized tests, course grades |
| Classroom Use | Taken frequently during regular classes to monitor progress and identify knowledge gaps | Conducted at the end of learning periods to evaluate overall achievement |
| Best For | Supporting individual needs, improving lower-attaining pupils' progress, and guiding next steps in learning | Measuring final achievement, grading, and determining if learning objectives have been met |
While summative assessments are useful in determining overall academic performance, formative assessments offer real-time insights into student learning, allowing teachers to adjust their instruction and better support individual needs for continuous improvement.
Many people consider ‘assessment’ as a test. But, this term is wider than that. There are two main categories of assessment: formative assessment and summative assessment. These types of assessment are sometimes called A 'for' L and A 'of' L, respectively.
At some level, both types of appraisal are conducted in the classroom but they have two different purposes. To maximise the effectiveness of each type of classroom practice, it is essential to understand the basic functions of these appraisals and how each of these assessment types contributes to the student motivation and learning process.
Providing comprehensive feedback for students is a fundamental part of lessons. In this article, we will demonstrate some engaging ways of going beyond the standard multiple-choice questions. Although plenary questions are a good way of gauging what students have understood, there are more interactive strategies that get to the essence of what pupil understanding.
Formative activities are taken more frequently and during regular classes for insightful purposes, allowing educators and students to assess pupil progress and attainment levels more often. Formative appraisals can start from diagnostic questions, demonstrating what gaps may exist in knowledge and what a student already knows. Knowing what has been learned to date, makes it easier for both the student and the teacher to plan the next stages of learning. As the learning proceeds, further appraisals specify whether instructional methods need to be modified to extend or reinforce students' current theoretical knowledge.
Formative tasks may be carried out through strategies such as key questions, exit tickets, quizzes, tasks, and many other types of formative review activities. Most of the formative appraisal activities are not recorded by the teachers, except possibly in the lesson plan drawn up to identify the next steps implied.
For formative tasks, the main functions of assessment include the monitoring of student theoretical knowledge and offering ongoing feedback to students and staff. Productive appraisal activities are the ongoing check of knowledge and skills. If designed properly, an ongoing assessment helps learners identify their weaknesses and strengths, and it can help students improve their self-regulating skills so that they gain their education properly. Constructive checks of understanding also provide information to the teachers about the lesson planning and subject matter learners are struggling with so that enough support can be provided through individual lessons.
Checks of understanding can be teacher-led, self or peer-assessment. These are usually low stakes assessments and mostly carry no grade, which may discourage the learners from completing or getting each of the individual pupils fully engaged with the task.
Summative exams can be used to assess pupil progress more formally, academic achievement and skill acquisition at the end of a specified instructional period, usually after completing a key stage, course, unit, project, program, semester or educational year.
External tests are usually used for summative purposes, to sum up what a student has learned at the end of a specific time, relative to the relevant national curriculum and learning objectives. The period of time allocated for exams or SATs will vary, depending upon what the education system wants to assess.
A summative task can be an observation, a cold written task, or a discussion. It can be recorded in a written format, in the form of photographs, through audio recording or any other visual media. Whichever way it is used, the insights can be used to indicate what has been learnt. Exams perform summative functions by providing a summary of what a student has attained at a specific point in time and may furnish cohort and individual data for informing stakeholders (such as parents or school leaders etc.) and tracking pupil progress against benchmark data or standardized tests.
These exams frequently have high stakes and learners tend to give priority to external tests over A4L activities. According to key figures in the world of education, feedback from both forms of appraisal should be used by the teachers and children to guide their activities and efforts in the upcoming courses.
Education experts claim that an over-dependence on testing at the end of an element of study may help in achieving good grades, but offers very little response to students for improving performance before reaching the end of the programme/module. Thus maintaining a balance between summative and formative assessments is necessary.
student assessment methods" width="auto" height="auto" id="">
Formative assessment offers numerous benefits by enhancing the learning experience for both students and teachers. By providing continuous feedback, formative assessment supports long-term retention and cumulative knowledge acquisition, ensuring students grasp essential concepts.
Additionally, formative assessment informs curriculum planning by identifying areas where students require further assistance, allowing teachers to tailor their instruction to better meet individual needs.
In essence, formative assessment plays a vital role in fostering a dynamic and responsive educational environment, which ultimately leads to improved student outcomes.
To really advance school attainment, we need to build upon what a child already knows. When school leaders are engaged in national curriculum planning we are attempting to sequence a form of knowledge acquisition and skills progression. If a child has gaps in their understanding, this may hinder their progression.
Using critical questions and other mixed-assessment approaches helps us build a picture of the classes current understanding. These types of activities help us inform curriculum planning and ensure that we have achieved maximum coverage of the curriculum. The following are some of the most significant benefits of formative assessments:
Research-based evidence about student achievement shows that summative judgments play an important role in developing memory. Retrieval practice, a powerful learning strategy, aids in consolidating students' memory by actively recalling information from their minds.
This process strengthens neural connections, making it easier to access the information in the future. By frequently engaging in retrieval practice, students reinforce their memory and enhance long-term retention. Additionally, the process helps identify any gaps in understanding, allowing for targeted revision and improved comprehension.
In summary, retrieval practice supports the development of durable and efficient memory networks, promoting deeper learning and lasting knowledge acquisition.
It is possible to engage students in formative assessments by:
The process of designing and developing classroom-based checks can be a creative endeavour: what must be assessed, using summative or/ and formative assessment? What are the appropriate measures and functions of the assessment? And, are the assessments aligned with the course outline and learning outcomes?
Research-based evidence about student achievement shows that the assessment design and quality the quality of its outcomes, and ultimately, whether those outcomes are suited to make significant decisions. Classroom-based assessments serve as the key components of the national curriculum. At Structural Learning, we have seen many primary schools use the block building methodology to find out what children understand (build what you know). Using the toolkit creatively in interactive lessons allows educators to embed learning reviews into teaching methods.
Any form of evaluation, carried out through formal or informal procedures, helps secondary and primary school students learn. Performing a classroom assessment provides an opportunity for students to see how they are performing in a class. Both formative and summative strategies are usually carried out at an individual level but there is no reason why group work cannot be used to monitor progress. Hearing a student articulating their ideas and demonstrating situation-specific skills can give us a lot of information.
A teacher can assess students attainment levels by performing a straightforward test and use the results to inform learning and teaching methods (thus also having formative advantages). To summarise, many interactive lessons provide us with opportunities to gauge a pupils understanding. Whether you are asking critical questions or using a graphic organiser to help students communicate their understanding, you are figuring out the next steps a pupil has to take. It is also worth acknowledging how powerful feedback is as a classroom tool, the EEF toolkit which unpicks the best ways to advance school attainment consistently places this pedagogy high up the performance tables.
Formative assessment provides ongoing feedback during the learning process to help adjust instruction, whilst summative assessment measures achievement at the end of a unit or course. Formative assessment is often called 'assessment for learning' and focuses on real-time insights, whereas summative assessment is 'assessment of learning' that determines overall academic performance at a specific endpoint.
Teachers can use interactive strategies such as diagnostic questioning, key questions, quizzes, and tasks that reveal deeper pupil understanding. These methods should focus on identifying knowledge gaps and providing real-time insights rather than simply checking surface-level comprehension through standard plenary questions.
Summative assessments are typically high stakes with grades attached, whilst formative assessments are usually low stakes and carry no grade. This creates an imbalance where pupils focus more on external tests rather than the ongoing learning activities that could actually improve their understanding and performance.
Research by Black and Wiliam shows that effective formative assessment can significantly improve outcomes for lower-attaining pupils more than any intervention programme. It helps identify individual weaknesses and strengths whilst supporting self-regulating skills, allowing teachers to provide targeted support through individual lessons.
Diagnostic questions reveal knowledge gaps that may secretly sabotage curriculum sequencing and future learning by showing what pupils already know and what they still need to learn. This information helps teachers plan the next stages of learning more effectively and modify instructional methods to reinforce or extend current knowledge.
Formative assessment tools include diagnostic questions, exit tickets, quizzes, interactive tasks, and ongoing observations during regular classes. Summative assessment examples are end-of-unit tests, final exams, standardised tests, SATs, and course grades that measure overall achievement at specific time points.
Teachers should use formative assessments frequently during regular lessons to monitor progress and provide ongoing feedback, whilst using summative assessments at appropriate endpoints to measure overall achievement. Education experts warn that over-dependence on end-of-unit testing may achieve good grades but offers little opportunity for students to improve performance before the programme concludes.
