Educational Assessment, a journal released by Taylor and Francis Group, recently published the article Developing a Formative Assessment Protocol to Examine Formative Assessment Practices in the Philippines. This was written by ACTRC Research Officer Louie Cagasan, Founding Director Dr Esther Care, and Research Fellows Pam Robertson and Dr Rebekah Luo. It was based on the Formative Assessment Phase 2 project of the Centre from 2015 to 2016. A related report for the study can be found here.
The article outlines the process that the team undertook to develop the Classroom Observation on Formative Assessment (COFA) tool to capture the different formative assessment practices of teachers in Philippine classrooms as they implement the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum. The aim was to develop a tool that (1) can be widely utilised, (2) can reliably measure formative assessment practice, (3) would require minimum training to learn, and (4) takes into account the cultural context where local classrooms operate.
The first version of the tool was mainly based on Ruiz-Primo & Furtak’s (2007) model of formative assessment, which features the ESRU cycles-“the teacher Elicits a question; the Student responds; the teacher Recognizes the student’s response; and then Uses the information collected to support student learning (p. 57).” Learnings from the use of the original version were acknowledged later in Phase 2, focusing this time on the Elicit (E) and Use (U) components. It took into account the technical limitations of the first version and the realities of classroom practice. The final version of COFA attempts to capture indicative behaviours of formative assessment practice according to two main capabilities: “elicit evidence of student learning to determine what students know and can do’ and ‘use evidence of student learning to move toward the learning goal (Cagasan et al, 2020, p.8).”
The COFA tool is useful in determining teacher’s level of formative assessment towards an improved pedagogical practice. It can guide them in their profession by knowing where their students are and using this knowledge in designing appropriate instructional strategies that would help them achieve the intent of learning.
A complete copy of the article is downloadable here.