Abstract
Formative assessment and assessment for learning are two of the most powerful ideas related to learning in classrooms to be developed over the past half century. Used properly, they can enhance learning, build self-efficacy, and increase motivation in students. This chapter explores the history and fundamental ideas of formative assessment; assessment for learning; and, to a lesser degree, feedback—as it relates to assessment. The goal of the chapter is to give the reader a solid idea of how these ideas developed, how they are similar and different, how they relate to classroom practice and instructional theories, and what the future appears to hold for them. It begins by looking at the seminal work of Scriven (1967), and in particular Bloom (1968, 1969; Bloom, Hastings, & Madaus, 1971) who was the first scholar to talk about what eventually became formative assessment (called formative evaluation at the time). It then traces the development of the ideas and how they related to other research on classroom assessment (e.g., Crooks, 1988), and then to the work of the Assessment Reform Group (1999) who developed the notion of assessment for learning, and Black and Wiliam (1998, 2012, 2018) who greatly expanded and elaborated upon the ideas behind assessment for learning. It concludes by analyzing similarities and differences in the ideas presented, and by looking to some promising areas of current research and future possibilities.