The U.S. public schooling system emphasizes teacher accountability through testing and assessments. For example, older national education policies like the No Child Left Behind Act increased pressure and emphasis on assessment strategies such as standardized testing. These policies have highlighted assessment on traditional education and EE. The Colorado Environmental Education Master Plan identifies that EE suffers from fragmented views of the environment and environmental processes. Effective assessment techniques are one strategy to ensure consistent, quality EE. The increase in public awareness around assessments has created definitional confusion around the purpose and format of formative and summative assessments (Bennett 2011).
An assessment is a tool that monitors an individual's abilities to understand their strengths and weaknesses. A formative assessment judges student understanding and is used to inform teaching practices. This type of assessment can be described as an assessment for learning. Formative assessments must occur in the middle of the learning process allowing instructors to reflect and adapt their teaching based on the assessment’s results. Alternatively, the primary use of summative assessments is to judge student understanding after content has been delivered. Therefore, they are considered an assessment of learning. This paper will reflect on some of my past teaching experiences, specifically how formative and summative assessments informed my teaching practice.
At the TREE Semester, I had two opportunities to practice creating and delivering environmental science curriculum. One of the opportunities was to teach 5th-grade students in our weekly outdoor learning school (OLS). The first three lessons of OLS were set lesson plans taught with three other co-teachers. I was then able to create my own 16-hour science inquiry unit on human interactions with animals that I taught alone to six 5th-grade students. The second teaching opportunity was in an alternative high school (Tesla). My co-teacher and I created and taught a 10-hour science unit on the accessibility of science. Both teaching opportunities allowed me to practice informing my instruction through the use of formative assessments.
Our first Tesla lesson focused on performing a calorimetry experiment. At the end of the experiment, students were expected to follow a calculation worksheet to compare the caloric values of the food we had compared with the calories advertised on the food's packaging. After students received the calculation worksheet and were instructed to fill it out, my co-teacher and I noticed that many of the students seemed confused. The worksheet was not clear enough for the students to complete individually. I took the opportunity to regain the class's attention and worked through one example calculation on the whiteboard. Unfortunately, the class was running late, and we could not ask the students to perform more calculations. I would have asked our students to complete the worksheet individually if I had had more time. If students still struggled, I would have provided individual assistance.
One formative assessment I used at the beginning of every Tesla and OLS lesson was a check-in. This activity allowed students to share how they were feeling, and I could be sensitive to any students having a hard day. At the start of our second Tesla lesson, one of the quieter students admitted that she felt extra tired or off that day. I was initially concerned because our lesson required more talking in groups than usual. I made sure to pay special attention to this student to make sure she felt prepared to participate in all activities. One of the activities that I anticipated would be challenging required students to write a story and share it with the class. I sat with the student and tried to figure out what she liked to write about and found ways to base her story on things that comforted her. In the end, she was willing to share her story in front of her classmates.
The OLS aquatic and inquiry lessons frequently used students' science notebooks to assess their understanding and inform instruction. One of the first OLS lesson objectives was to teach students about the water cycle in the montane and riparian ecosystems. Students were asked to draw a picture or describe how water moves through these two ecosystems. When asking students to show me their work, I noticed that a handful of students were confused about the direction that water travels in the water cycle. While my co-teachers were providing individual assistance to students who were still working in their notebooks, I directed all the students who had finished off to the side. I used that time as an opportunity to review how water moves from the montane ecosystem into the riparian ecosystem and then evaporates back up into the sky. I even had my students use their arms to demonstrate this process kinesthetically. I could tell from their expressions and comments that some of the initially confused students ended up understanding where they were previously misguided.
In my first OLS inquiry lesson, I used a formative assessment from my students' science notebooks to alter my teaching strategy. At the beginning of the lesson, students were asked to create a research question about interactions between humans and wildlife. These questions were supposed to follow the SMERT (smart, measurable, ethical, reasonable, timely) acronym. However, when I checked on some of my student's progress, I noticed that many were writing hypotheses, not research questions. So, I decided to stop the class and reviewed the SMERT acronym. The quick review helped most of my students remember what a SMERT question is and write appropriate responses. These are a few examples of formative assessments that have helped me provide better instruction for my students. Educators should constantly assess and know how well their students understand the content they are teaching.
Although summative assessments serve the primary purpose of documenting what students know, they should also inform future teaching practices. Unfortunately, I will not have the opportunity to re-teach the Tesla or OLS units. However, I can still reflect on information from my summative assessments and propose alternative ways of teaching the units. For example, our final Tesla lesson concluded with the unit's summative assessment. Students completed a worksheet that asked them to identify an issue in their school or community and use the scientific method to address the issue. After reviewing their responses, I noticed that students struggled to identify resources that could be used to address their chosen issues. Through reflection, I realized that we did not explicitly discuss the materials or resources that might be available to these high school students. If I had the opportunity to re-teach this unit, I would add an activity where I could introduce examples of high school students who have successfully addressed various school and community issues. I would then discuss the resources they used and whether my students have access to the same or similar resources. This additional activity and discussion would have better prepared my students to identify resources needed to address their chosen issues.
Formative and summative assessments are used to inform teaching practices and document student understanding of concepts. Frequent formative assessments are helpful for teachers to ensure their instruction is meeting the needs of their students and helping their students meet learning objectives. Formative assessments should be used thought the learning process to inform teaching practices. These assessments may also provide teachers with information on their students understanding of content. However, summative assessments that occur at the end of a unit or program should be the main indicator of student knowledge.
Works Cited
Bennett, R. E. (2011). Formative assessment: A critical review. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 18(1), 5–25.