Benefits
Formative assessments are a crucial and ongoing component of the educational process. Formative evaluation refers to a range of formal and informal assessment methods used during the learning process. They permit and promote changes to the instructional process to raise student achievement. Providing pupils with comments on their performance and advice on how to maintain or improve it will help them study more effectively.
Formative evaluations often incorporate qualitative feedback, as they tend to focus more on how students perform than on grades (Blundell & O’Brien, n.d.).To determine whether desired learning is being achieved, formative assessment can be done during instruction. The teaching can be changed or reconsidered if formative evaluation shows that learning is either not occurring or not accurate. Thus, formative evaluations are a continuous procedure intended to collect assessment information throughout instruction.
Limitations
However, there are content areas where formative assessments can prove to be less effective. For instance, due to time constraints, formative assessments will be less practical in classes centered on language. This field’s exams typically consist of essays and summaries; therefore, they will consume a significant amount of class time. As a result, teachers will have less time to introduce children to the new curriculum, which can halt their progression, even though they will receive essential data from the assessment.
Because formative assessments are intended to be conducted frequently, these tasks will consume a significant percentage of the subject’s weekly instructional time (Blundell & O’Brien, n.d.). The introduction and testing of new knowledge will suffer as a result. Additionally, this will add unnecessary complexity for teachers, as it will be time-consuming and frustrating for them to review and revise the summaries and essays that students have written. Formative assessments are therefore helpful in certain areas, such as literacy and language, and serve as a valuable approach.
Reference
Blundell, L. & O’Brien, R. (n.d.). Formative Assessment. University of Liverpool.