A Study of Formative Feedback in Mathematics Assessment and its Connection to Grading

Abstract

The tests with summative characteristics are the predominant instrument in Mathematics’ school evaluation. After corrected, the tests are returned to the students with grades or concepts added. These evaluative feedbacks contribute little to students’ learning. On the other hand, formative assessments characterized by feedbacks more focused on learning, seem utopian, distant from the teacher's reality. The lack of time, the bloated curriculum, the lack of concepts related to a formative assessment or the absence of professional autonomy are barriers for the teacher to break the exam culture up, so incorporated in school systems. This article is an excerpt from a doctoral thesis on formative assessment, in which characteristics of formative feedback are discussed, presenting a pragmatic way of evaluating formatively. For this, an investigation was carried out with 51 professionals and students related to mathematics teaching, who corrected, assigned grades, and provided feedbacks for six different solutions to the same question. Initially, we propose a distinction between formative feedbacks and neutral feedbacks, then we investigate the connection between grading and the quality of feedback from teachers. This allows us to suppose that transforming school tests into evaluations with more formative characteristics may not be a utopia.

Keywords Feedback; Formative Assessment; Tests; Grading