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Experiments are an important part of physics and it naturally follows that lab activities is important in physics education. While there are a great number of methods for lab activities that all have varying effects, this study seeks to answer how they interact with one of the most important tools in education, formative assessment. We have explored this topic by reviewing scientific articles on both physics lab activities as well as formative assessment in its many forms. To connect it to a more practical and Swedish context, we also surveyed Swedish physics teachers at different levels of education and performed a thematic analysis to see how they approach lab activities and what, if any, formative assessment they implement. From the scientific review we found that we can divide the physics lab activities into minimally and heavily guided. The minimally guided support abilities like critical thinking and considering sources of error, while heavily guided lab activities are more suited training procedural abilities, such as handling lab equipment, or for students with no prior experience with labs. Formative assessment can be implemented  with positive effects regardless of lab activity. Especially self and peer assessment show great results and should be viewed as a regular part of the teaching methodology for lab activities. The survey, which had 12 respondents, indicated that self and peer assessment are not used on a regular basis prior to university and the lab activities start out from heavily guided and moves towards minimally guided. The main challenge against changing both of these was time. To aid teachers in implementing the effective lab activities, proposed by the research literature, we prepared a lab activity in Swedish alongside considerations for implementations, formative assessment and a rubric.

At the writing of this paper, no research on teachers’ formative assessment practices of writing for English as a foreign language (EFL) in a Swedish upper secondary context was found. How EFL teachers relate to formative assessment practices affects their implementation of it. Therefore, the aim of this research was to elucidate Swedish upper secondary school teachers of English’s perception of formative assessment, their reported perceptions regarding the utility of formative assessment, and how their perception affected their implementation of formative assessment of writing practices. The study used a qualitative approach by conducting semi-constructed interviews of four English teachers. The participants had a concurrent view of formative assessment as an on-going process for facilitating student development; however, their reported practices of applying formative assessment of writing differed. In general, the participants reported practices met the demands of the curriculum of Swedish upper secondary school and English syllabi and aligned with theoretical concepts formative practices, and previous research on implementing teacher feedback for assisting student writing development. Although, the analysis of reported practices also aligned with Burner’s (2016) findings of teachers not fully inviting students into the formative process in terms of participating in assessment and self-assessment. Moreover, the support of colleagues for implementing formative practices emerged as a theme among the participants. With that said, the results of this research cannot be generalized to the Swedish upper secondary context due to its small scale. Furthermore, all results of perceptions and implemented practices were self-reported and not reinforced with objective observations.

The syllabus for English in Swedish upper secondary education states that teachers should help students become confident in expressing themselves through writing. Writing ability is an indication of knowing how to communicate and show knowledge effectively. An important part of the teaching profession is to help develop students’ abilities, which emphasizes teachers’ formative assessment practices. Research states the importance of formative assessment for writing development; however, previous studies showed several issues with teachers’ assessment practices. There was a discrepancy between teachers’ perceptions of formative assessment and their practices where teachers were positive toward using formative assessment, but their practices became summative. Furthermore, time constraints and a lack of institutional support caused problems with implementing formative assessment practices. Additionally, there was a lack of research on teachers’ formative assessment practices of writing and a lack of research conducted in a Swedish upper secondary EFL context. Therefore, this study investigated the topic of upper secondary English teachers’ formative writing assessment practices and their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of formative assessment for writing assignments and the associated challenges for implementation and level of institutional support. The study used a qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured interviews with three upper secondary English teachers in Sweden. The results showed that the practice could become summative even though teachers had a formative mindset. Furthermore, all teachers were positive about using formative assessment to develop students’ writing abilities. However, they expressed a partially shared belief that formative assessment was time-consuming, that there was a lack of time and institutional support to implement it, and that students were grade-focused. The findings imply that there is a risk that students do not develop the required communication skills stated in the syllabus.

The study examined the effects of formative assessment on community college students' content-specific vocabulary skills, academic achievement and academic self-efficacy. Sixty-one community college students who were enrolled in Developmental Psychology took part in formative assessment only (N = 24), formative assessment in conjunction with goal setting and self-monitoring (N = 19) or no formative assessment (N = 20). It was hypothesized that students who took part in formative assessment in conjunction with goal setting and self-monitoring would achieve higher content-specific vocabulary skills, academic achievement and academic self-efficacy from pretest to posttest when compared to students who took part in formative assessment only and no formative assessment. Findings indicated that students in both of the formative assessment groups had significantly higher content-specific vocabulary skills from pretest to posttest when compared to the control group. Implications for formative assessment practices with community college students and the lack of support for the hypotheses are discussed. / Educational Psychology

In the wake of declining student performance and interest in science education, efforts to improve the quality of science teaching have intensified, including physics education. A recurring proposal to improve physics teaching is the use of formative assessment. Policy reforms tend to view the implementation of formative assessment as easy, but studies indicate that integrating these strategies into teachers’ practices can be challenging.   Using a phenomenological approach and hermeneutic reflections, the present study explores the opportunities and challenges that teachers’ and students’ experience when implementing formative assessments in the physics classroom. For example, teachers may encounter resistance from their students and colleagues with different expectations of physics teaching, limiting teachers’ opportunities to ‘break free’ from established traditions. However, the study also highlights opportunities for physics teachers to evolve by taking risks and embracing formative assessment as an overarching learning assessment approach.   Furthermore, the present study confirms the results of previous research indicating that students may see assessment rubrics in a positive light as their use can clarify teachers’ expectations and reduce uncertainty in this regard. However, the results of the present study also show that students may approach rubrics only as mechanical and strategic tools to obtain their desired grades, which risks conveying the message to students that physics knowledge is quantitative in nature. The students’ experiences also demonstrated that the use of rubrics could cause stress and anxiety, limiting the formative potential of rubrics.  The results of the study are discussed in relation to the support that teachers and students need in implementing formative assessment and rubric use, and they have implications for teachers’ assessment literacy, including their ability to implement formative assessments in relation to different purposes of physics teaching. One conclusion is that teachers’ and students’ lived experiences of formative assessment and rubric use need to be understood in relation to the wider context of their lifeworlds, which is marked by an increased focus on performance and results. This is crucial so that teachers and students would not be portrayed as the problems when investments in formative assessment do not meet expectations.

Few classroom measures of English language proficiency have been evaluated for reliability and validity. Researchers have examined the concurrent and predictive validity of an oral language test, titled A Developmental English Language Proficiency Test (ADEPT), and the relationship to the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) in the receptive/listening and expressive/speaking domains. Four years of retroactive data representing 392 student records were obtained from a local urban school district in Los Angeles County with a significant proportion of English language learners. After preparing the data file for analysis, data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) system. Cronbach’s alpha was used to analyze the internal consistency of ADEPT. Pearson r analysis was performed to examine concurrent validity and predictive validity. Findings indicated moderate to high correlation coefficients of internal consistency in the first three levels of ADEPT. Concurrent validity results varied depending on the school year. In the most recent school year, 2012–2013, positive moderate to strong correlations were found. This relationship was weaker in each previous year. Overall, correlations increased and remained positive as sample size increased but predictive validity was weak for all three sets of comparative years. These findings support the use of ADEPT as a multiple measure, as a monitoring tool and to inform instruction.

This dissertation aims to understand the female Saudi mathematics teachers' formative assessment practices after coming back to in-person instruction and the impact of such practices on female student attitudes toward learning mathematics. The study was conducted in two middle schools located in the North and South districts of a large city in Saudi Arabia, using a sequential mixed study design methodology . The study's sample included 4 female mathematics teachers and 104 8th grade mathematics female students. For the qualitative research design, I conducted four interviews and used the NVivo program to thematically analyze my results. Additionally, I used AssessToday observational protocol to conduct 12 observations (three per teacher) and triangulated to analyze the data, including my filled notes, lessons audio recordings, and photos. For my quantitative design, I administered the Attitudes Towards Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) Scale to 104 8th-grade mathematics female students in a pre- and post-survey and I performed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the internal structure of my data. Overall, the study revealed that despite teachers' claims of practicing formative activities, their actual practices may not reflect it. The study confirmed the literature that using AssessToday is applicable regardless of the location, culture, language, and education system. The study contributes to short-cycle formative assessment literature by showing a positive and linear relationship (although not statistically significant) between teacher's use of formative assessment and students' attitudes toward learning mathematics.