This article introduces this special issue by addressing the types of assessment practices that are possible within STEM inquiry classrooms, where the focus is on noticing, developing, and improving inquiry competencies. Three domains are explored: informal formative assessment occurring in classroom interactions; structured formative assessment…

Purpose: This article examines how 34 teachers self-assessed their work with the nine Assessment for Learning (AfL) strategies in teaching and their own suggestions for improvement as evidenced by the reflective statements given on reflection forms. Design/Approach/Methods: The sample was a group of 34 teachers from 10 primary schools and 10…

Assessment is critical in postsecondary education, as it is at all levels. Assessments are classified into four types: diagnostic, summative, evaluative, and formative. Recent trends in assessment have migrated away from summative to formative evaluations. Formative evaluations help students develop expertise and concentrate their schedules, ease…

Classroom assessment is the process of documenting the knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs of learners. It provides essential feedback to both instructors and students to improve their teaching methods for guiding and motivating students to be actively involved in their learning. Assessment drives learning. Formative assessments enable the…

The Indiana University Kokomo (IUK) School of Education (SOE) collaborates with 38 school districts in the North Central Indiana region in the Clinical Educational Partnership (CEP). The purpose of the CEP is to allow P-12 administrators and teachers to give input on the SOE's program development initiatives. Education students engage in practicum…

The current wave of science education reforms emphasizes more equitable opportunities for students as they learn disciplinary core ideas and apply crosscutting concepts by engaging in the practices of scientists. Formative assessment--the assessment teachers and students conduct while learning is in progress--also needs to shift to support this…

Summative assessments provide data to evaluate the effectiveness of schools, teachers, and educational policies, contributing to a robust accountability system worldwide. However, educators and scholars argue that summative assessments do not effectively promote ongoing learning, enhance teaching practices, or align with the skills required in the…

Balanced assessment systems provide feedback and support decision-making to improve instruction and learning. "Supporting Continuous Improvement Efforts Through Balanced Assessment Systems: Components, Integration, and High-Leverage Actions" outlines key features and components, integration of various assessment approaches, and guiding…

One way to understand the Physical Education (PE) curriculum is through assessment. After the appearance in Spain of the learning standard (LS) as a reference for more specific assessment, the main objective of this work was to analyse the assessment aspects for PE in Primary Education in the curricula of Spain's 17 Autonomous Communities.…

Determining what students know and understand, as well as what misconceptions they have, is essential to planning and providing targeted intervention and support. In this article, a teacher uses formative assessment interviews to uncover evidence of students' understandings and to plan targeted instruction in a mathematics intervention class. The…

Background: Assessment for learning (AfL) discourses and practices have gained popularity globally, as educational policies and ideas are transferred across borders. An important area of investigation is how AfL may be construed and enacted differently, according to context. Purpose: By examining how teachers in Singapore understand and use AfL --…

A significant challenge in studying formative assessment is the lack of suitable instruments for assessing teachers' formative assessment practices. This paper reports the development of the Teacher Formative Assessment Practice Scale (TFAPS) and its psychometric properties based on two samples of primary and secondary school teachers: one from…

The importance of student self-assessment and its contribution to learning in teacher education is well documented in the research literature. However, we still need to better understand when and why self-assessment actually works. This study examines preservice teachers' perception of self-assessment prior to and following experiencing…

This study is about the effectiveness of concept maps as a formative assessment. It aimed to investigate the effectiveness of concept maps in formative assessment for the teaching and learning of biological concepts at the secondary level. One group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used for this study. The experiment was completed in…

This study investigated the relationship between formative assessment and reading achievement in Hong Kong, a Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) society. 4,837 Hong Kong students were surveyed in a nine-item questionnaire that was used as indicator variable of formative assessment strategies. The study used multi-group structural equation modelling…