Impact of Formative Assessment Feedback on Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Oxidation-Reduction

• In Event: Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Assessments Serving Science Learning and Instruction

Abstract

This study aims to integrate diagnostic assessment into teaching contexts and to examine the impact of assessment feedback on students’ understanding of oxidation-reduction. A total of 200 eighth-grade students from six classes from three high schools were assigned into two experimental groups that received instruction with formative assessment feedback and four comparison groups that received traditional instruction (without formative assessment feedback). The findings showed that the experimental groups performed better on conceptual understanding than the comparison groups. Particularly, within the experimental groups, high-level students progressed better than low-level students. In addition, instruction with formative feedback could help clarify students’ specific misconceptions in science. These findings suggest that formative feedback plays a crucial role in aligning assessment and instruction.

Authors

• Kun-Shia Liu, National Sun Yat-Sen University

• Ying-Yao Cheng, National Sun Yat-Sen University

• Wen-Chung Wang, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

• Mark R. Wilson, University of California - Berkeley