Brett LindenbergFormative assessment is any check on learning whose result changes what happens next while the learning is still under way. Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam define it by use: a classroom practice is formative to the extent that teachers, learners, or their peers gather evidence of what learners have achieved, interpret it, and use it to make better decisions about the next step in teaching and learning (Black and Wiliam, 2009). A hinge question before a new topic, an exit ticket, a draft returned with comments, and a scenario question in a sales course can all be formative. The same quiz is summative when its only job is to produce a grade or a pass at the end. Corporate training uses the idea the same way: check understanding during the course and act on the result before the final test or the job. In the demo below, a manager has to respond to a missed deadline, and the checkpoint gives feedback on the choice before the next attempt.
Where the term comes from
The terms started in program evaluation. Michael Scriven's paper The Methodology of Evaluation, first circulated in 1966 and published in 1967, separated formative evaluation, which helps improve a curriculum while it is being developed, from summative evaluation, which judges the finished product. Benjamin Bloom took the idea into student learning in the 1968 paper Learning for Mastery, and Bloom and colleagues set out the methods in the Handbook on Formative and Summative Evaluation of Student Learning (1971).
The idea spread in schools after Black and Wiliam's 1998 review of classroom research, Assessment and Classroom Learning. It found firm evidence that innovations which strengthen the frequent feedback students receive about their learning produce substantial learning gains. The UK's Assessment Reform Group used the name assessment for learning in its 2002 principles, and researchers often treat the two names as synonyms.
Black and Wiliam's later definition puts the decision at the center. They argue that evidence someone collects but never uses should not count as formative. By that standard, a weekly quiz that nobody reviews is not formative, whatever its label.
How formative assessment works
Black and Wiliam build on three processes in teaching and learning, taken from Ramaprasad's 1983 paper on the definition of feedback: establish where learners are going, establish where they are now, and work out what needs to happen to get them there. The teacher, the learner, and the learner's peers all take part in each process. Wiliam and Thompson (2007) crossed the three processes with those three groups and arrived at five key strategies, which the 2009 paper summarizes.
| Strategy | In a classroom | In corporate training |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Clarify and share learning intentions and success criteria | Show a strong and a weak sample answer and discuss what separates them | Play a model customer call and share the checklist reviewers will use |
| 2. Design discussions and tasks that reveal understanding | Ask a hinge question and have every student show an answer card at once | Put a diagnostic question in the training video before the next section |
| 3. Give feedback that moves learners forward | Return a draft with comments on what to change, with time to revise before grading | Give task-focused feedback on a practice call, then a second attempt |
| 4. Help learners act as resources for one another | Peer review against a rubric | Pairs review each other's recorded pitch with the same checklist |
| 5. Help learners own their learning | Students rate their confidence on each success criterion | Learners rate confidence by topic and choose which review to watch |
In every row, someone gets evidence and then acts on it. Our guide to formative assessment techniques turns these strategies into ten checks for workplace training, with the decision each one supports.
Formative vs summative assessment
The difference lies in how you use the result. The same multiple-choice quiz can be either one.
| Feature | Formative assessment | Summative assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Improve learning while it happens | Judge what was learned at the end |
| Timing | During a lesson, unit, or course | After a unit, course, or program |
| Stakes | Low; results do not count toward a grade or rating | Higher; results count toward a grade, certification, or record |
| Who acts on the result | The teacher or trainer, the learner, and peers | Teachers, schools, employers, and certifying bodies |
| Feedback | Specific, with a chance to try again | Often a score or a pass or fail |
| School examples | Exit tickets, hinge questions, drafts with comments | Final exams, end-of-unit tests, graded projects |
| Training examples | Questions inside a training video, practice scenarios, observed practice before sign-off | Certification tests, final competence checks, compliance exams |
A useful test is whether there is still time to act on the result before it counts. If there is, you can use it formatively. A teacher who reviews an end-of-unit test to plan the next unit uses a summative result for a formative purpose. For the full set of assessment types, see learning assessment strategies.
Formative assessment examples in education
Most formative checks take a few minutes. Common ones in classrooms:
- Exit tickets: one or two questions at the end of a lesson, read before the next one.
- Hinge questions: one multiple-choice question at a turning point in the lesson, where each wrong option matches a known misconception.
- Answer cards or mini whiteboards: every student shows an answer at the same time, so the teacher sees the whole class at once.
- Think-pair-share: students think alone, discuss with a partner, then share with the class while the teacher listens for misconceptions.
- Drafts with feedback: students revise work before the final version is graded.
- Self-assessment and peer review against the same success criteria.
- Questions inside lesson videos, placed at the moment a concept is taught. See interactive video for education.
In a 2018 survey of teachers at American international schools in West Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and South America, Anton Pav found that 75% of the teachers used formative strategies more than 70% of the time, and Pav contrasted that with lower use reported in studies of U.S. school districts (The International Educator, December 2018). The survey was part of Pav's dissertation research.
Many of these checks now run on student devices. Our list of formative assessment online tools compares the options, and schools that need devices first can look at OpenGrants' list of grant sources for computers in education.
What the research shows, and its limits
Effect sizes of 0.4 to 0.7 standard deviations are often quoted for formative assessment. A 2011 meta-analysis by Neal Kingston and Brooke Nash, Formative Assessment: A Meta-Analysis and a Call for Research, found that the research base does not support that claim. Of more than 300 K-12 studies they reviewed, only 13 reported enough data to calculate effect sizes. Across those, they estimated a weighted mean effect size of 0.20, with larger effects in English language arts than in math or science. Approaches built on teacher professional development (0.30) and computer-based formative systems (0.28) appeared more effective than the others.
Randy Bennett's critical review, also from 2011, concluded that formative assessment is not yet a well-defined set of practices. Because definitions allow so many different implementations, Bennett expects the effects to vary widely from one setting to the next.
Formative practices can raise learning, but the size of the gain depends on how well you run them, and most of the evidence comes from schools. Treat the research as a reason to try formative checks, and measure the result in your own courses. Feedback also needs care, because the wrong kind can lower performance; the techniques guide covers the feedback research.
Formative assessment in corporate training
The principles carry over from the classroom, with two differences. Workplace learners worry less about grades and more about performance reviews, so formative checks need to stay out of those reviews. Learners admit what they do not understand when the answer cannot count against them. And much corporate training is self-paced video with no trainer in the room, so the checks and the feedback have to sit inside the content.
Four examples:
Sales objection handling
A new rep watches a customer say "Your price is too high." The video pauses and asks the rep to type a response. After submitting, the rep sees an experienced seller handle the same objection and a short breakdown of why it works. Nothing is scored. The rep compares their own answer with the model and tries the next objection.
New-hire onboarding
After a short module on the expense policy, three ungraded questions ask about the submission deadline, which items need approval in advance, and where the policy lives. If most new hires miss the pre-approval question, the module is unclear at that point. Fix the module before the next group starts.
Safety training
A video shows a worker who spots a hazard and asks what the correct first step is. A wrong answer opens a short explanation of the procedure and then returns the learner to the main video. The learner meets the procedure again at the moment of the mistake instead of in a review weeks later.
Leadership development
The demo at the top of this page is a leadership example. A manager-in-training picks a response to a missed deadline and sees its likely effect. A reply that labels the person hides the cause. A vague reply leaves no plan. A reply that names the impact and asks what is blocking the work makes a plan possible. The checkpoint asks the learner to try the feedback on another response, which is what makes it formative.
To decide which gaps deserve training in the first place, start with a training needs assessment. To judge the program after it runs, use training evaluation methods.
How to run formative checks in training video
When the training is a video, you can put the check at the second a point is taught. In Mindstamp, on supported plans:
- Questions pause the video at the moment you choose, and each answer is stored against the learner.
- After an answer, you can show an explanation, or use change time to send a wrong answer back to the part of the video that teaches the point.
- Repeat Until Correct asks the same question again after a wrong answer and keeps every attempt in the report. The help article on passing scores and retries explains how attempts affect the score.
- Free response questions and voice or video answers let learners explain their reasoning instead of only picking an option.
- The Questions report shows how all learners answered each question, so you can see when a whole group missed the same point.
The in-video assessment example shows one applied question with feedback on each answer, and the assessment method example matches the evidence you need to a formative, performance, or self-assessment method.
Common questions
What is formative assessment in simple words?
Checking what learners understand while they are still learning, then using what you find to decide what to teach or practice next.
What are the main types of formative assessment?
Questioning and discussion, short quizzes and exit tickets, feedback on drafts or practice, self-assessment, and peer assessment. In training, add scenario decisions and observed practice before the final sign-off.
Is a quiz formative or summative?
Either. A quiz is formative when you or the learner act on the result before anything counts, for example by reteaching a point or practicing again. It is summative when the score is the end of the process.
Should formative assessments be graded?
Keep them ungraded or low stakes. A score that counts gives learners a reason to hide confusion, and hidden confusion is the evidence you need. In workplace training, keep the results out of performance reviews.
Does formative assessment work for soft skills?
Yes, when the check asks for a decision in a realistic situation. A branching scenario, like the demo above, shows the consequence of each choice and lets the learner try again. Our guide to scenario-based training covers how to write them.
Is Formative the company the same as formative assessment?
No. Formative (formative.com) is a software company that sells a K-12 assessment platform, and it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Newsela. Formative assessment is the teaching practice, which many tools support. Our formative assessment tools guide covers Formative's plans along with other options.
Sources and further reading
Access Courses Online, a UK provider of online courses, outlines the benefits of continuing education for your career and personal growth (July 2025).
To start, pick one lesson or training module you will run this month. Add two checks at the points where learners most often go wrong, decide in advance what you will do with each result, and change one thing in the next session based on what you see.
