Most Downloaded Studies in Educational Evaluation Articles
Abstract: The idea that assessment is intrinsic to effective
instruction is traced from early experiments in the
individualization of learning through the work of Benjamin Bloom
to reviews of the impact of feedback on learners in classrooms.
While many of these reviews detailed the adverse impact of
assessment on learning, they also indicated that under certain
conditions assessment had considerable potential to enhance
learning. It is shown that understanding the impact that
assessment has on learning requires a broader focus than the
feedback intervention itself, particularly the learner's
responses to the feedback, and the learning milieu in which the
feedback operates. Different definitions of the terms “formative
assessment” and “assessment for learning” are discussed, and
subsumed within a broad definition that focuses on the extent to
which instructional decisions are supported by evidence. The
paper concludes by exploring some of the consequen