Week 2: KINDS OF ASSESSMENT

Formative vs. Summative

Assessment
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Which one is correct?

Assessment for learning

Assessment of learning
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2 main dimensions of assessment

• Assessment FOR learning
refers to the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by
students and their teachers to decide where students are in their
learning process, where they need to go and how best to get there.
• Assessment OF learning
refers to assessments that happen after learning has occurred, to
determine whether learning has happened. They are used to make
statements about a student’s learning status at a particular point in time.
 FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
• In line with assessment for learning
• To form students’ competences and skills
with appropriate feedback
• Carried out collaboratively by both the
teacher and the students during the class and
the course
• Helping students to grow
• Aiming at future continuation of learning
• All kinds of informal assessment
• Typically, no marks are associated
• Giving a student a comment or a suggestion,
or calling attention to an error
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
• In line with assessment of learning
• To measure, or summarize what a student
has accomplished the previously set
objectives
• Used to determine whether students have
learned what they were expected to learn
• Typically occurs at the conclusion of a
defined instructional period – typically at
the end of a unit, a project, a course, a
semester, a program or a school year
• Often involves evaluation (decision
making)
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Task1: Decide whether the following characteristics are formative /summative assess’ts
1. Helping students to grow
2. Typically occurs at the conclusion of a defined instructional period – typically at the end of a unit, a project, a course, a
semester, a program or a school year
3. Aiming at future continuation of learning
4. In line with assessment of learning
5. All kinds of informal assessment
6. Often involves evaluation (decision making)
7. In line with assessment for learning
8. Carried out collaboratively by both the teacher and the students during the class and the course
9. To measure, or summarize what a student has accomplished the previously set objectives
10. Typically, no marks are associated
11. Giving a student a comment or a suggestion, or calling attention to an error
12. To form students’ competences and skills with appropriate feedback
13. Used to determine whether students have learned what they were expected to learn
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Some issues regarding formative & summative assessment

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All tests (quizzes, periodic review tests, midterm exams, etc.) tend to be
viewed as summative!
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Some issues related to formative & summative assessment

A challenge to you as a teacher is to change that attitude among

your students:
•instill a more formative quality to what your students might
otherwise view as a summative test
•offer your students an opportunity to convert tests into “learning
experiences”?
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Findings from research

•The appeal of formative assessment is growing and that
conventional summative testing of language-learning outcomes is
gradually integrating formative modes of assessing language
learning as an ongoing process (Ross, 2005).
•Formative assessment was superior to summative assessment
in providing individualized crucial information to classroom
teachers (Black & Williams, 1998).
Norm-referenced
vs. Criterion-
referenced tests

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Norm-referenced tests
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•designed to compare and

Norm-referenced tests rank test takers in relation to
one another.
•Students, then pass or fail
according to their position in
this comparative list.
•Usually used in large scale
standardized testing
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Criterion-referenced tests
• designed to give test- takers feedback, usually in the
form of grades, on specific course or lesson objectives.
• compare a person’s knowledge or skills against a
predetermined standard, learning goal,
performance level, or other criterion, without
considering how other students perform on the test.
• In regard to classroom-based assessment (as
opposed to large-scale standardized testing), criterion-
referenced testing is of more prominent interest than
norm-referenced testing.
Norm-referenced testing
▪ is designed to give information
about a candidate’s performance
_____________ other candidates
in relation with
▪ ________________ tell what the
student
does is capable of doing in the
not directly
language
▪ Each test-taker’s score is
interpreted in relation to
a___________________________
mean, median, standard deviation
___, and percentile in rank.
Criterion-referenced testing
▪ is designed to give test-takers
feedback, usually in the form of
grades, on specific
______________________
course or lesson objectives.
▪ Classroom tests involving the
students in only one class, and
connected to
_________________,
a curriculum are typical
of criterion-referenced testing.
▪ distribution
The ______________ of
students’ scores across a
continuum may be of little
concern as long as the instrument
assesses appropriate objectives.
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Types of Assessment
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TASK 3: Put the purposes and characteristics of tests into the

correct categories

Achievement Diagnostic Placement

tests tests tests

Proficiency Aptitude
tests tests
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Presenting your understanding

Achievement Diagnostic Placement

tests tests tests

Proficiency Aptitude
tests tests
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Achievement
tests PURPOSES:

• to measure learners’ ability within a classroom lesson, a

unit, or even an entire curriculum
• to determine whether course objectives have been met—
and appropriate knowledge and skills acquired—by the end
of a given period of instruction
CHARACTERISTICS:

• are often summative because they are administered at the

end of a lesson, unit, or term of study
• also play an important formative role, because an effective
achievement test offers feedback about the quality of a
learner's performance in subsets of the unit or course
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Diagnostic
tests
PURPOSES:
• to identify aspects of a language that a student needs to
develop or that a course should include
CHARACTERISTICS:
• typically offer detailed, subcategorized information
about the learner
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Placement
tests
PURPOSES:
• to place a student into a particular level or
section of a language curriculum or school
CHARACTERISTICS:
• can also be used to diagnose a student’s
performance, which gives teachers a head start
on assessing their students’ abilities
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Proficiency PURPOSES:
• to measures the learner’s general skill or ability in the
tests
language as a whole
CHARACTERISTICS:
• are almost always summative and norm-referenced
• are not equipped to provide diagnostic feedback
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Aptitude PURPOSES:
• to measure a student’s general ability to learn a foreign
tests language before taking a course and predict success in
that undertaking
CHARACTERISTICS:
• require students to perform language-related tasks such
as learning numbers, distinguishing speech sounds,
detecting grammatical functions, and memorizing paired
associates
• are seldom used today
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Keep in mind these basic principles

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Next week’s topic: Principles of language assessment –

Read Brown & Abeywickrama, chapter 2

1. What makes a test practical? Reliable?

2. Read the case study on page 28 (Brown & Abeywickrama) and figure out what makes the test
impractical?

3. What are some factors that contribute to the unreliability of a test?

4. What does a valid test do? What are the four types of evidence which establish the validity of a
test?

5. What makes authenticity difficult to define?

6. How can a test provide beneficial washback?