Ricerc@Sapienza

This concluding paper to the volume highlights some lessons learned from the various papers relative to the issue of formative assessment and draws them together as a range of attempts to make students’ learning visible. In addition, possible avenues for further research related to this important topic are discussed, including formative assessment as an instrument or a process, the development of tools for assessment, and a more nuanced understanding of classroom assessment.

This introductory paper to the volume contrasts formative assessment with summative assessment and describes the importance of formative assessment to classroom instruction. In particular, it argues that a task is formative to the extent that data from the task are used to enhance and inform further instruction rather than simply to provide an evaluation of a student or of instruction. The use of design research as a mechanism to develop sound classroom assessment is outlined because a design science framework provides a means to tie together varied exemplars of innovations in assessment.

This contribution addresses the theme of technology for formative assessment in the mathematics classroom and in particular the ways connected classroom technology may support formative assessment strategies in whole class activities. Design experiments have been developed through the use of a connected classroom technology by which students may share their productions, opinions and reflections with their classmates and the teacher during or at the end of a mathematical activity.

We discuss a distance teaching-learning approach, developed within two courses for prospective mathematics teachers, exploiting digital technologies to activate formative assessment practices. In particular, we analyse excerpts, from synchronous and asynchronous activities within the courses, to highlight the formative assessment processes that were activated, the feedback provided by prospective teachers to each other and their meta-reflections that testify learning in the domain of teacher education.