This chapter deals with designing and conducting formative evaluations. According to the reading, formative evaluation is the collection of data and information during the development of instruction that can be used to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the instruction. In essence, ID using formative evaluation would be able to find out how to make instruction more:
- Effective
- Efficient
- Interesting/Motivating
- Usable
- Acceptable
Dick and Carey focus on three phases of formative evaluation. However, Tessmer identifies four distinct phases:
- Expert Review-Experts review a rough version of the instruction with or without the evaluator present to determine its strengths and weaknesses. They can be content experts, technical experts, designers, or instructors.
- One-to-One-One learner at a time reviews the instruction with the evaluator. The evaluator observes the learner using the instruction, notes the learner's comments, and questions the learner during and after the instruction.
- Small Group-The evaluator tries out the unfinished instruction with a group of learners and records their performance and comments.
- Field Test-The evaluator observes the instruction being tried out in a realistic environment with a group of learners.
A formative evaluation (sometimes referred to as internal) is a method for judging the worth of a program while the program activities are forming (in progress). They can be conducted during any phase of the ADDIE process. This part of the evaluation focuses on the process.
Thus, formative evaluations are basically done on the fly. They permit the designers, learners, instructors, and managers to monitor how well the instructional goals and objectives are being met. Its main purpose is to catch deficiencies ASAP so that the proper learning interventions can take place that allows the learners to master the required skills and knowledge.
"Formative evaluation is also useful in analyzing learning materials, student learning and achievements, and teacher effectiveness . . . Formative evaluation is primarily a building process which accumulates a series of components of new materials, skills, and problems into an ultimate meaningful whole." - Wally Guyot (1978)
The advantages of one-to-one are its interactive and highly productive, easy, quick and inexpensive, its sources of revision information, the clearness of instruction and direction, the completeness of the instruction, and the adequate quality of the materials.
Small group evaluation evaluates the effectiveness, appeal and implementability of the approach. It also gives the study many advantages such as inexpensive, easy to conduct, more accurate measures of teachers’ performance, and more improvement in the instruction prototype.
Field test evaluation is conducted to describe the teacher acceptance, implementability, and organizational acceptance of the prototype approach. It can be used to confirm the revisions made in previous formative evaluations, to generate final revision suggestions, and to investigate the effectiveness of the prototype instruction and also to gain the polished version of the products and programs.
REFLECTION
I think of formative evaluation as a way yo improve my instruction. How else do I improve if not with the help of evaluation? Overall, I think formative assessments help us differentiate instruction and thus improve student achievement. When I work with teachers during staff development, they often tell me they don't have time to assess students along the way. They fear sacrificing coverage and insist they must move on quickly. Yet in the rush to cover more, students are actually learning less. Without time to reflect on and interact meaningfully with new information, students are unlikely to retain much of what is "covered" in their classrooms.
In my opinion, formative assessments, however, do not have to take an inordinate amount of time. While a few types (such as extended responses or essays) take considerably more time than others, many are quick and easy to use on a daily basis. On balance, the time they take from a lesson is well worth the information you gather and the retention students gain.
In sum, I think formative evaluation encourage an ongoing communication between faculty and student(s) that can move students toward expert self-monitoring of their work and intellectual persistence, I think formative evaluation techniques provide appropriate learning objectives. It encourages students to learn from mistakes and is not linked to grading practice. And in a way, it helps
faculty encourage a mastery of the goals and objectives of the class. In addition, it helps faculty provide models and instruction to help students connect formative feedback with meta-cognitive practice.
EXTENDED KNOWLEDGE
This article is excerpted from 25 Quick Formative Assessments for a Differentiated Classroom by Judith Dodge.
Types of Assessment StrategiesThere are variety of quick ways for you to check for understanding and gather "evidence" of learning in your classroom.
- Summaries and Reflections Students stop and reflect, make sense of what they have heard or read, derive personal meaning from their learning experiences, and/or increase their metacognitive skills. These require that students use content-specific language.
- Lists, Charts, and Graphic Organizers Students will organize information, make connections, and note relationships through the use of various graphic organizers.
- Visual Representations of Information Students will use both words and pictures to make connections and increase memory, facilitating retrieval of information later on. This "dual coding" helps teachers address classroom diversity, preferences in learning style, and different ways of "knowing."
- Collaborative Activities Students have the opportunity to move and/or communicate with others as they develop and demonstrate their understanding of concepts.
Keeping Track of the Data
When you use formative assessments, you must keep track of the data that you collect. The easiest way to observe and assess student growth is to walk around your room with a clipboard and sticky notes. As you notice acquisition of a new skill or confusion and struggle with a skill, record the student's name and jot down a brief comment. Consider keeping a folder for each child in which you insert any notes that you make on a daily basis. This process will help you focus on the needs of individual students when you confer with each child or develop lessons for your whole class.
Differentiating Instruction in Response to Formative Assessments
Thomas R. Guskey suggests that for assessments to become an integral part of the instructional process, teachers need to change their approach in three important ways. They must "1) use assessments as sources of information for both students and teachers, 2) follow assessments with high-quality corrective instruction, and 3) give students second chances to demonstrate success" (2007).
Once you have assessed your learners, you must take action. You will be able to help your students achieve success by differentiating your instruction based on the information you have gathered. Ask yourself, "Who needs my attention now? Which students need a different approach? Which students are not learning anything new, because I haven't challenged them?"
"Tiering" your activities for two or three levels of learners is usually what is called for after a review of assessment data. We must be prepared to provide both corrective activities and enrichment activities for those who need them. An important caveat to keep in mind, however, is that the follow-up, corrective instruction designed to help students must present concepts in new ways and engage students in different learning experiences that are more appropriate for them (Guskey, 2007/2008). Your challenge will be to find a new and different pathway to understanding. The best corrective activities involve a change in format, organization, or method of presentation (Guskey, 2007/2008).
After using any of the formative assessments contained in this book, you can choose from among these suggestions to scaffold your struggling learners or challenge your advanced learners. The suggestions for struggling learners will help students during their "second-chance" learning on the road toward mastery. The suggestions for advanced learners will challenge those students who, in my opinion, are frequently forgotten in mixed-ability classrooms. With these easy adjustments to your lesson plans, you will be able to respond to the diverse readiness needs of students in your heterogeneous classroom.
Gathering Multiple Sources of Evidence
In differentiated classrooms everywhere, a resounding mantra is "Fair is not equal; fair is getting what you need." Assessments enable us to determine what students need. But for our assessments to be accurate, we need multiple measures of student understanding. We need evidence gathered over time in different ways to evaluate how effective the teaching and learning process has been. Tomlinson and McTighe (2006) suggest that when we gather a "photo album" rather than a "snapshot" of our students, we can differentiate instruction based on a more accurate evaluation of our students' learning needs.
I wish you success as you gather your own "photo album" of your students and choose from a variety of reflective, unique, and engaging assessment tools. This book offers you an "assessment tool kit" to choose from as you create a classroom that is continually more responsive to the needs of your diverse learners. These assessments will provide you and your students "evidence" of their learning and help them on their journey to greater achievement in school.
Response to Intervention (RTI)
With the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) under No Child Left Behind, schools are searching for ways to implement the newly required Response to Intervention (RTI) model. This new way of delivering intervention to struggling students encompasses a three-tiered model.
Tier 1 interventions include monitoring at-risk students within the general education classroom, ensuring that each student has access to a high-quality education that is matched to his or her needs. RTI focuses on improving academic achievement by using scientifically based instructional practices.
According to the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (2005), Tier 1 strategies encompass "alternative assessment which utilizes quality interventions matched to student needs, coupled with formative evaluation to obtain data over time to make critical educational decisions." Not to be confused with tiered activities, which are a cornerstone of a differentiated classroom (where one concept is taught at two or three levels of readiness), Tier I activities are any of the in-class interventions classroom teachers provide to assess and monitor their at-risk students.
Reference
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-are-formative-assessments-and-why-should-we-use-them