Perceptions of Formative Assessment in Health Professional Educational Settings

• In Event: Opportunities for Formative Assessment Across Health Professions Education Settings

Abstract

Formative assessment has become a buzzword in the field of education (McMillan, 2007), but the term can refer to different conceptualizations and uses of assessment. While summative assessment can be thought of as assessment of what students have learned, formative assessment serves as assessment for helping students learn (McMillan, 2008), as they are learning (Earl, 2012). The purpose of formative assessment, then, is to improve student learning through extending and encouraging learning (McMillan, 2008). Thus, for assessment to be formative in nature, it must be used to improve performance, where improvement is needed (Wiliam & Leahy, 2007). Furthermore, formative assessment must “feed back into the teaching-learning process” (Strobart & Gipps, 1997, p. 18).

Formative assessment has been acknowledged worldwide as one of the most powerful tools for fostering student motivation and achievement (e.g., Black & Wiliam, 1998; Cauley & McMillan, 2010). However, there are many challenges to successfully and effectively implement formative assessment practices in educational settings, particularly higher education settings, such as the aforementioned lack of agreement as to what constitutes formative assessment (Cizek, 2010). Instructors’ lack of pedagogical knowledge related to implementing formative assessment practices, their beliefs and values related to teaching and learning, and tight resources also present challenges to its use in educational settings (see Izci, 2016).

Since formative assessment, particularly the provision of feedback, is so critical to learning, achievement, and motivation (Ekholm, Zumbrunn, & Conklin, 2015; Magno & Amarles, 2011; Zumbrunn, Marrs, & Mewborn, 2016; Zumbrunn, 2013), understanding how students and instructors perceive formative feedback is important for gaining insight into how this process might be improved. Moreover, it is important to understand the disconnect between instructors’ perceptions and uses of formative assessment practices and students’ perceptions and uses, or not, of formative feedback they receive. While feedback can be a vital instructional tool (Shute, 2007), it has also been suggested that the feedback instructors provide to their students is sometimes viewed as unhelpful (e.g., Carless, 2006) or too negative (e.g., Weaver, 2006); sometimes, the feedback isn’t even legible (e.g., Higgins, Hartley, & Skelton, 2002). Receiving feedback can also be a very emotional process for students (e.g., Rowe & Wood, 2008). In one study, when students were asked if they liked to receive feedback, many students cited strong, negative emotional reactions to past feedback as reasons why they no longer wish to participate in the feedback process (Zumbrunn, Marrs, & Mewborn, 2016).

This paper will review extant literature on instructors’ and students’ perceptions and uses of formative assessment, focusing on health professional education. It will also address the need to challenge instructors’ current perceptions of formative assessment practices in addition to the ways in which we engage students in this process.

Authors

• Sarah Anne Marrs, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Beverly Ann Fitzpatrick, Memorial University