The potential of formative assessment for enhancing student learning is now well-recognised but a key challenge remains the influence of summative assessment. If formative assessment (also known as assessment for learning) is to flourish, initiatives aimed at supporting a positive link between formative and summative assessment functions are sorely needed. This paper explores potential synergies between formative and summative assessment at a conceptual level and at the level of practice. The main aims are as follows:

• To identify existing good practices at the interface of formative and summative assessment and support the further development of these practices;


• To examine under what circumstances summative assessment acts as a barrier to formative assessment and under what circumstances it can be supportive.

The paper is exploratory in nature and draws on qualitative data from an ongoing project in Hong Kong primary schools. This project, Primary English Assessment for Learning (PEAL), involves in-depth case studies, three of which form the basis of this paper. The essence of the research method is to explore assessment for learning practice through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and documentary analysis.

The main findings to date relate to teachers’ conceptions of learning and assessment; the potential of ‘test paper review’ and ‘consolidation days’ to enhance learning after a test; and the tensions stimulated by an external examination taken by year 3 and year 6 students.

The significance of the paper relates to its contribution to assessment theory in terms of the exploration of synergies between formative and summative assessment. The paper also carries implications for the development of a context-sensitive version of formative assessment. In other words, where testing is frequent and pervasive negative impacts may be reduced if appropriate follow-up learning interventions are carried out after a test is taken.

Background

The potential of formative assessment (also known as assessment for learning) for enhancing student learning is now well-recognised but obstacles in wide-scale implementation remain (Black & Wiliam, 1998). A key challenge is the influence of summative assessment looming over formative assessment. Cultures of testing and accountability may crowd out formative assessment or prompt teachers to downplay it. Even for teachers buying into the principles of formative assessment and trying to implement them, they may be constrained by the different, often contradictory demands of the external test system (Black & Wiliam, 2004). If formative assessment is to flourish, initiatives aimed at supporting a positive link between formative and summative are sorely needed (Broadfoot & Black, 2004; Harlen, 2005). One strategy, familiar from the work carried out by Black et al. (2003), is the formative use of summative data: in other words how information from tests can be fed back into the teaching and learning process.

Whilst there is a rapidly burgeoning international literature on the implementation of formative assessment in schools, it is comparatively under-explored in Confucian heritage culture settings. In such contexts, examinations have characteristically been a means of social selection and the reliability of summative assessments has generally been seen as a more important issue than whether testing has resulted in productive long-term learning. Creating synergies between formative and summative assessment represents both an opportunity and a challenge, particularly in a setting where testing is frequent but more formative approaches are still only at a modest level of implementation (Carless, 2005).

Aims

This paper is exploratory in nature and seeks to investigate with classroom teachers potential synergies between formative and summative functions of assessment at a conceptual level and at the level of practice. The main aims are as follows:

• To identify existing good practices at the interface of formative and summative assessment and support the further development of these practices;


• To examine under what circumstances summative assessment acts as a barrier to formative assessment and under what circumstances it can be supportive;


• To use school-based interviews, classroom observation data and documentary analysis to cast light on these issues.

Methodology

The paper draws on qualitative data from a funded project involving English language teachers in Hong Kong primary schools. This project, Primary English Assessment for Learning (PEAL), involves in-depth developmental case studies, three of which form the basis of this paper. The research questions (RQs), framing the study, are as follows:

RQ 1 What good practices can be identified at the interface of formative and summative assessment in English language teaching in primary schools?

RQ 2 What strategies are teachers using to try to develop these practices further?

RQ 3 What are the facilitating and inhibiting factors in the use of summative assessment as a productive learning tool?

The essence of the research method is to carry out qualitative case studies of assessment for learning practice through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and documentary analysis. Semi-structured interviews are used to probe teachers’ beliefs about assessment and their experiences of using formative and summative assessment; students are also interviewed in focus groups to add their perspectives on relevant aspects of their assessment experience. Classroom observation data are collected to examine how test preparation and follow-up to tests are handled. Documentary analysis is carried out to supplement insights from observations and interviews by analysing school samples of: formative assessment tools; test papers; and other marked pieces of work. Standard qualitative data analysis procedures are utilized, involving reduction, summarising, coding and categorising of data.

Findings

A number of tentative emerging findings arise from the first year of the PEAL project. Most fundamental is the influence of teachers’ conceptions of learning and assessment. Teachers’ conceptions of assessment varied widely in terms of the extent to which they saw assessment as having a diagnostic function as well as a measuring one. Teachers of a constructivist orientation were identified as having the greatest potential to implement formative assessment. Also significant was the potential of ‘test paper review’ and ‘consolidation days’ to enhance student learning after a test. A further issue relates to the impact of an external examination in years 3 and years 6 exerting pressure on teachers and students. In some cases, this pressure could be harnessed productively, in others less so. Following from this was a tension between performance in an external examination and learning, in other words there was some evidence that students could achieve improved marks without developing solid learning outcomes.

Significance

The significance of the paper lies in its exploration of the relationship between formative and summative assessment in primary school contexts. It is suggested that the development of productive synergies between formative and summative assessment can make a significant contribution to assessment theory and practice. In addition, the paper broadens the knowledge base on formative assessment in Confucian heritage cultures by contributing to the development of a context-sensitive version of formative assessment. In such contexts, where testing is pervasive there is a pressing need to identify how it might effectively support student learning. Implications for teaching are outlined in terms of linking curriculum, learning and assessment more productively. Issues for teacher development are also addressed with respect to evidence of attitude change and evolving conceptions of assessment.

References

Black, P. & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning, Assessment in education, 5(1), 7-74.

Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., & Wiliam, D. (2003). Assessment for learning: Putting it into practice.  Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Black, P. & Wiliam, D. (2004). The formative purpose: assessment must first promote learning. In M. Wilson (Ed.), Towards coherence between classroom assessment and accountability. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Broadfoot, P. & Black, P. (2004). Redefining assessment? The first 10 years of Assessment in Education. Assessment in Education, 11, 1, 7-27.

Carless, D, (2005). Prospects for the implementation of assessment for learning.  Assessment in Education, 12(1), 39-54.

Harlen, W. (2005). Teachers’ summative practices and assessment for learning – tensions and synergies. The Curriculum Journal, 16(2), 207-223.