What type of assessment occurs during learning to guide instruction?

Formative assessment is an essential component of the instructional process, as it takes place during the learning experience. Its primary purpose is to gather feedback and information about student understanding and progress in real time. This ongoing evaluation allows teachers to adjust their instruction based on the specific needs of their students, helping to identify areas where students may be struggling and where they excel.

Formative assessments can take many forms, such as quizzes, discussions, observations, or even informal checks for understanding. The key aspect of these assessments is that they are used to inform teaching and learning as it happens, rather than at the end of a learning cycle like summative assessments, which evaluate student learning after the fact. Thus, they help build a more responsive and adaptive learning environment, promoting student success throughout the learning process.

In contrast, summative assessments are typically administered after an instructional period to evaluate overall student learning, which does not provide immediate feedback for instructional adjustment. Standardized assessments are designed to measure student performance against a common standard, often used for accountability rather than for guiding individual learning. Criterion-referenced assessments ascertain whether students have met specific learning objectives but do not necessarily inform the day-to-day instructional strategies. Therefore, formative assessment stands out as the most effective approach for guiding instruction