Digital Commons Network^™

Blending Formative And Summative Assessment In A Capstone Subject: ‘It’S Not Your Tools, It’S How You Use Them’, Don Houston, James N. Thompson

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Discussions about the relationships between formative and summative assessment have come full circle after decades of debate. For some time formative assessment with its emphasis on feedback to students was promoted as better practice than traditional summative assessment. Summative assessment practices were broadly criticised as distanced from the learning process. More recently discussions have refocused on the potential complementary characteristics of formative and summative purposes of assessment. However studies on practical designs to link formative and summative assessment in constructive ways are rare. In paramedic education, like many other professional disciplines, strong traditions of summative assessment - assessment ‘of’ learning …