Formative Assessments In Primary Education

Assessments are something we face in everyday life, not only as teachers or students but also as everyday people. Throughout the day we are faced with a range of assessment opportunities, from crossing the road to spending your life savings on buying a house. Our performance is constantly being assessed not only by ourselves but also by the people around us, these assessments are so constant we are unaware it is even happening. Assessments are judgments about someone or something; it is a consideration or an interpretation to better understand a situation or process. The area in which we are most aware of assessments is within the education sector. From as early on as primary education through to tertiary education, assessments are a key contributor …show more content…
This information provides an opportunity for teachers to reflect on the level each student is at and to adapt their teaching approach (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2005, p. 1). There are numerous assessment concepts that can be utilized by educators that provide various approaches. Formative assessments are a key contributing aspect to the effectiveness of assessments. Formative assessments focus on providing learners with feedback throughout a course or module to allow for further learning to improve future performance “teachers make frequent, interactive assessments of student understanding. This enables them to adjust their teaching to meet individual student needs and to better help all students to reach high standards” (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2005, p. 1). This concept not only allows the learner to improve but also the teacher, the student effectively provides feedback through a formative assessment that relates to the teaching methods. If a student is not attaining information it is not necessarily the learner that is accountable. Students are only as good as their teachers, Ignacio Estrada quotes “if a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn”. The concept of formative assessments enables teachers to …show more content…
2). The concept of summative assessment leads down a completely different path than formative assessments. The process of summative assessment is a one off assessment, that measures overall performance or knowledge attained by the student, “used to see if a student has acquired the skills, knowledge and behaviors that the course has set out to provide” (Chapman, 2011, p. 5). Summative assessments are a key element in assessing students overall achievements and capabilities at the completion of a course or instructional unit, resulting in qualifications. These qualifications are an effective way to summaries a student’s education, to then be used towards further education or to enter the work