In this blog I want to compare formative assessment and summative assessment and show some of my thoughts.

The purpose of formative assessment is to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback to students. If designed appropriately, it helps students identify their strengths and weaknesses. Formative assessments have low stakes and usually carry no grade, which in some instances may discourage the students from doing the task or fully engaging with it. Some of the strategies of formative assessment are exit card, in class discussions, open-ended questions, and peer assessments.

On the other hand, the goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. Summative assessments often have high stakes and are treated by students as the priority over formative assessments. Examples of summative assessment are midterm exams, chapter tests, etc. I think most students, especially students in higher level education, will take summative assessment more seriously because of the grade that come with it. Mostly, formative assessment is used to support summative assessment for all level of education. Most of the final exams are summative assessment too. I. think it’s crucial to motivate students to interact in formative assessment because it is also a part of learning.

Reference:

Guo, W. Y., & Yan, Z. (2019). Formative and summative assessment in Hong Kong primary schools: students’ attitudes matter. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 26(6), 675–699. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594x.2019.1571993