2.5.2: Formative Assessment Cycle

24 The diagnostic assessment takes place at the start of the learning sequence. Its objective is to take stock of the prior and spontaneous knowledge of the students who will serve as a point of support for new learning (De Ketele, 1988).

25 The Kirkpatrick Model is probably the best-known model for analysing and evaluating the results of training and educational programs. It takes into account any style of training, both informal or formal, to determine aptitude based on four levels criteria: reaction, learning, behaviour, and results.

26 OBE is a student-centered

learning philosophy that focuses on empirically measuring student performance called ‘outcomes’ (Felder & Brent, 2003). Motivations for implementing OBE can be ‘to improve learning’ (Biggs, 2003) or ‘to meet accreditation needs’ (Felder & Brent, 2003). It is a combination of three types of competence: practical, knowing how to do things, ability to make decisions; fundamental, understanding what you are doing and why; reflective, learn and adapt through selfreflection; apply knowledge appropriately and responsibly.

27 To know more we suggest this research for French readers:

Lucie Mougenot, 2013.

28 Brau-Antony and Cleuziou, 2005; Combaz and Hoibian, 2008

Today educational evaluation is a complex and evolving disciplinary field and has a robust and complex tradition of research behind it. Since the end of the 1960s, debate around the concept of educational evaluation has centered on context, reference systems, programmes, resources and, in general, the situations in which teaching-learning processes take place.

There are countless types of evaluation and models: such as Summative, Formative or Diagnostic24, Process or Impact, Qualitative or Quantitative, the Kirkpatrick Model25, the Outcome-Base Evaluation Model26, and many others27 .

Here we’ll take a look at Summative and Formative Evaluation.

Summative Evaluation, recognises and describes the knowledge, skills and competences achieved by the pupil at the end of a pre-established teaching period. It’s a final evaluation which consists of assessing all the changes that have occurred during the training. Summative assessment is still significant in teaching. It scores the student, issuing a grade which supposedly reflects the level acquired by the student.

Current thinking is that this type of evaluation does not guarantee equity or fairness in results28 .

This kind of evaluation is uncommon in the circus field, particularly in youth circus, where a non-competitive and supportive vision and philosophy puts more emphasis on the process than on the results.

A more Learner-Centered and relevant model for us is Formative Evaluation. This type of assessment is carried out in itinere (throughout the teaching period), to measure how students receive new knowledge. Its goal is to be flexible and to adapt teaching activity to the different needs and characteristics of the students. It provides a process, through which we can discover and understand what has been learned, what remains to be learnt, and how to improve. In this model, the student is considered an active protagonist.

IDENTIFY LEARNING GOALS AND OUTCOMES

IMPROVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT CYCLE PROVIDE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

REFLECT UPON THE RESULT

ASSESS STUDENT LEARNING

This is the Formative Assessment Cycle. As you can see, this form of evaluation is circular. Its regulatory function affects both learners and those who carry out their didactic action.

This evaluation strategy is utilised in the teaching-learning process and aligned with set objectives. The objectives are shared with the students who are able to identify the critical aspects to improve on the journey. Its purpose is to define the levels and abilities of participants, but also the effectiveness and quality of the procedures followed, thus allowing a possible revision and correction of the process itself. It means that the evaluation can and must affect the teaching methodologies, to the point of modifying them, with the aim of accompanying, describing and guiding the path itself.

Assessment and learning objectives should inform each other. Assessments are built around learning objectives, however, learning objectives should be revised based on insights from assessments. This completes the assessment cycle29 .

‘An assessment for learning is any assessment that has, in its design and practice, as its first priority the aim of promoting student learning. It differs from assessment designed primarily for the purpose of accountability, or student ranking or certification of competence. An evaluation activity can help learning if it provides information that teachers and their students can use as feedback to evaluate themselves and their peers and modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. This evaluation becomes ‘formative evaluation’ when the information is actually used to improve the teaching work and thereby satisfy the learning needs’30 .

29 To learn more about this topic, you can follow the works of Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam. They completed a meta-analysis of more than 250 research studies

on the topic. Their findings, published as ‘Inside the Black Box’, make a compelling case for formative assessment.

30 Working Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom’; Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam (2004)