In the program, formative assessments will help instructors gauge student understanding during the process of learning. The primary purpose of formative assessments is to assessments for learning. They should be used to inform future instruction while providing instructors information on student understanding. The two formative assessments that will support and assess students learning related to systems thinking skills are guided worksheets and teacher/student dialogues.
Guided worksheets such as the feedback loop worksheet described in question 4 are a helpful tool to assess student learning within the framework of Bloom's taxonomy. Reflecting on the progression of cognitive complexity in the worksheet will allow teachers numerous opportunities to explicitly see what levels of complexity students can do and where they may struggle. Providing multiple worksheets throughout a unit, such as feedback loops, will allow teachers to assess student understanding and the impact of their teaching strategies. Guided worksheets will also support students learning by explicitly scaffolding the complexity of one topic. Each question or section, reflecting Bloom's taxonomy, of the worksheet will act as a benchmark for students to work off to answer the following questions.
Intentional dialogues or oral assessments between students and instructors allow the teacher to support and assess student systems thinking skills. Dialogue indicates that both parties will share knowledge and participate in the learning environment. This format reflects Vygotsky's theory of development by supporting learning that occurs in students' ZPD. These conversations should be an opportunity for students to showcase their current understanding and work through more challenging ideas with an instructor. A dialogue will allow the instructor to immediately assess what information is in a student's ZPD and tailor future curriculum to the needs of their students. The dialogues themselves should be an opportunity to support student learning by pushing students' understanding of particular topics.