Building Quality into Formative Assessment: Using Action Research as a tool for improvement

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to investigate how the quality of formative assessment in the Department of Defence Supply Support environment can be improved. Although formative assessment is applied in the Department of Defence, several limitations in the application thereof were found. The investigation was done on the Initial Supply Support learning programme at the Department of Defence School of Logistical Training Satellite in Pretoria. A small group of 19 learners (N=19) who attended the mentioned learning programme together with the assessor, who presented it, were selected as the target group. Action research with the stages as proposed by Hodgkinson and Maree (1998) was used in this study. Using action research in this study could be characterised by a cyclical nature of planning, implementing, observing and evaluating. This cyclical nature lends it to provide information during the evaluation stage, which can be used in the planning stage of a new cycle of action research. The five phases from Lategan and Van Rooyen (1998) as amended by the researcher, were used as a formative assessment process together with action research in order to investigate how the quality of formative assessment can be improved. Aligning the amended five phases of formative assessment with the four stages of action research resulted in; planning and designing with the planning stage of action research, collecting evidence with implementation, judging evidence and making recommendations were aligned with observation and providing feedback and further development with the evaluation stage of action research. The concepts and principles as identified from the literature and analysed by the researcher were applied to each of the amended five formative assessment phases. The principles can by used as a set of standards, which an assessor should adhere to in order to improve formative assessment by using it as a process together with action research. Applying formative assessment as a process, together with using action research in this study, indicated that the quality of formative assessment could be improved.