Summative examinations are all those examinations that are mandatory for the acquisition of credits. In the Bachelor/Master system, these are for the most part graded examinations at the end of a course or final module examinations.” (Frölich-Steffen/ den Ouden 2019, 18). In this context, “the potential of exams to support the learning process and to become a constructive part of the learning process themselves” is rarely used (Müller/ Schmidt 2009, 30).
Formative examinations are understood as ungraded performances. They have the character of learning controls and “are rather understood as continuous guidance and support of the learning process, (…) do not have a selection function, but refer to the teaching and learning activities of the students and use different types of feedback to make clear to the students their learning progress.” (Frölich-Steffen/ den Ouden 2019, 18) Formative assessment is thus carried out during learning. The advantage in terms of learning process control is obvious: “If it becomes apparent that students have not understood important content, it can no longer be addressed in the course because it is already over. To avoid this problem, formative tests assess the students’ level of knowledge at the beginning or in the course of a course, so that both students and lecturers can use the test results as feedback to adapt the further learning process accordingly.” (Schneider/ Mustafic 2015, 130)
Examples of formative assessments are;
- conversations,
- discussion rounds,
- solving tasks,
- the learning portfolio or student self-assessment
- formal learning assessments (tests, mock exams, solutions to exercises), and
- moderated group discussions.
In some cases, the term ‘formative evaluation’ instead of ‘formative testing’ can be found in the literature: “Formative evaluation takes place during the course of the semester. Hallet describes this as a feedback and reinforcement function. It enables shaping (adjusting) of teaching or learning process.” (Dainton 2018, 47)
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