EXE 733

Assignment 1

Using Formative Assessment

to Improve Learning and Teaching
in Chemistry Lesson

By. Ulfa Rahmi

211077007

Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1
Quality learning in Chemistry: Acid and Base Lesson ............................................................................. 1
Assessment ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Example of Formative assessment in Acid and Base lesson ................................................................... 4
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Reference ................................................................................................................................................ 8
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 10
Using formative assessment to improve
learning and teaching in Chemistry
Lesson
Introduction
Currently, most assessment in Chemistry lessons in Indonesia overemphasizes in marking
and grading students’ knowledge. Almost in every occasion of classroom learning, most
teachers ignore the on-going process. They tend to do a test at the end of the lesson by
applying a traditional model of assessment such as a paper and pencil test. This situation
definitely will have a negative effect on student (Xuyan, 2006) since teachers seem to ignore
the nature of assessment which is to gather information on students’ progress in learning
(Brady and Kennedy, 2001).

As the main purpose of assessment is to improve students’ learning and instruction,

teachers need to be aware of students’ performance by considering their weakness so that
students could have an effective learning and later could enhance their performance in
learning science. In doing so, teachers should shift their perspective from grading to
assessing which is not always focus on scoring but diagnosing students’ progress. Therefore,
teachers need to realize to look for the right method of assessment which could support
students’ learning.

In this paper, an exemplary assessment will be discussed in relation to an effective and

quality learning. Two types of formative assessment namely diagnostic assessment and
performance assessment are going to be discussed on how to improve the strategy of
teaching a chemistry subject in the secondary level particularly on the acid and base lesson.
Examples are provided to show the strategy used in developing an exemplary assessment to
assess students’ progress in learning.

Quality learning in Chemistry: Acid and Base Lesson

Chemistry is one of the important subjects in science education in Indonesia. It is learned by
the upper secondary students from year 10 to 12. Most Indonesian students particularly

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Aceh students will find that learning chemistry is difficult. The number of symbols, reaction
equation, calculation and memorization make students unengaged to learn chemistry. The
situations worsen since most teachers always do a test and rarely helping them to learn in
the way diagnosing students’ weakness. Acid and Base for instance, is one of the lessons
that is included in Indonesian curriculum for year 11 (Departemen Pendidikan Nasional,
2003) which many students found difficult to learn. In fact, if only teachers could meet
students need, this lesson might be easy to learn and therefore a quality teaching and
learning could be achieved.

Quality learning could be define in which students are mastering the subject matter,
understanding the concept, developing explicit strategies for asking a good question and are
able to explore new ideas (Killen, 2005). Brandt (1998 cited in Killen, 2005) mentioned that
individual is learning when they feel it is meaningful to them. He also mentioned that
learning occur when the learner construct their knowledge by building on their prior
knowledge and learning mostly happen through a social interaction. These statements are in
line with the basic principle of cognitive and social constructivist. There are an old saying
“you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink” (Killen, 2005:36). It means that
no matter what opportunities and information teachers provide, at the end students
themselves who decide whether they learn or not. Teachers need to understand that every
person has his or her own way to learn. In other words, teachers need to offer a proper
learning opportunity and ensure that students are able to take advantage of those
opportunities.

Based on the cognitive theory developed by Piaget, learning not only involves a meaning
construction which is a continuous and an active process but also depends on the
knowledge of the learner (Tytler, draft in press). Since it involves the learners’ knowledge, to
have quality learning teachers need to take into account students’ prior knowledge by
eliciting them through an assessment. If teachers are able to elicit their prior knowledge, the
assimilation and the accommodation will be achieved. Assimilation is the process of building
the knowledge on the “preexisting cognitive structure” while accommodation is the process
of changing the existing cognitive structure into the new knowledge. Both of the processes
are also developed by Piaget to explain how an individual adapt the new knowledge (Huitt &
Hummel, 2003).

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As the newest approach of learning is developed to be more social constructivist, Vygotsky,
a person behind socio-constructivism, argues that learning is not only a personal
developmental process, but it needs an interaction and communication to gain the
knowledge (Tytler, draft in press). And again, to find out whether students learn or not, an
assessment is needed which usually embedded in the teachers’ interaction with students.

Assessment
As teachers are trying to enhance students learning, undoubtedly assessment is becoming a
necessity to evaluate the students’ progress. It could be done informally-asking verbal
question- or formally-using the test-. The term of assessment could be define as the process
of gathering information from test (Athanasou, 1997) and observation (Brady and Kennedy,
2001) with a vision to make a judgment about a particular work sample.

Assessment can serve many purposes. Mutch and Brown (2002) stated that generally
assessment could be classified for students’ learning, certification and quality assurance.
Focusing on the first purpose which is for student learning, the main objective of
assessment is to monitor students’ progress, diagnose students’ needs and make
instructional plans (Hubber, 2011a) which all lead to quality learning. If teachers assess the
students during the instruction process and the information gained from the assessment is
used as the basis for the next teaching and learning instruction, it is referred to as formative
assessment. Meanwhile, when the assessment is done at the end of a course or lesson of
instruction which the information gained is not used for further teaching and learning
process, it is called summative assessment (Killen. 2005).

As it focuses on how to improve students’ learning, a formative assessment seems to be

more appropriate to be implemented in the classroom. It is clear that when teachers use
this kind of assessment, they could interpret the information gained from it to use as an
adjustment to the next lesson such as re-teaching or providing another practice to help
students understand the lesson. In addition, teachers could provide feedback for learners
and help them to understand their weaknesses and make them understand what should be
done in order to improve their learning (Killen, 2005).

In order to have an exemplary assessment Hubber (2011b), there are some main principles
that need to be considered. Firstly, the main objective of the assessment is to improve

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students’ achievement. This means a proper assessment is based on a vision finding out a
good teaching strategy for students to have the best learning result. Secondly, assessment
should be based on an understanding of how students learn. It means assessment should
be embedded in a pedagogy used. For example in learning acid and base, which use a
constructivist strategy, the assessment should be integrated to assess the performance over
time (Hubber, 2011c). Thirdly, assessment should be an integral part of lesson planning and
not something to add later. If teachers have the assessment integrated in the lesson, they
could have immediate feedback so that they can make a decision on further teaching.
Finally, an assessment should be valid and reliable (Victoria Education Department, 2007).
Valid means whether the assessment “measures what it is meant to measure” (Killen,
2005:107) and represents and reflects the content of the course (Wragg, 2001). Reliable
refers to the “consistency” of the result collected from assessment (Hubber, 2011d; Killen,
2005). Therefore, the validity and the reliability of one assessment should be considered in
order to have trustworthy information.

In applying an assessment, teachers will need assessment tasks and instruments.

Assessment instruments are the tools that teachers use to evaluate what students have
learned. The examples of assessment instrument are individual questions, hands-on activity
with question, test, and so on (Killen, 2005). He also mentioned that the main consideration
in developing the assessment tools is the objective that teacher want to achieve. Thus the
relation between lesson objectives and assessment should be “clear, direct and explicit”. If
teachers are unable to link between them, the assessment tool will not be valid and reliable.

It is might be possible to assess students’ performance by using only one tool, but if
teachers want a detailed image of students’ understanding and skills, they need to use
multiple assessment instruments to allow multiple judgments about students’ learning
(Killen, 2005).

Example of Formative assessment in Acid and Base lesson

Obviously, there is diversity among students with various backgrounds and interests. So, it is
ineffective to begin a new teaching without diagnosing their knowledge and understanding
(Marsh, 2000). Moreover, as learning science should consider the cognitive level of the
students, teachers should be able to diagnose their prior knowledge. One way of diagnosing

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students’ prior knowledge is by using a diagnostic assessment which is still part of formative
assessment. Diagnostic assessment is an assessment that used at the beginning of the
lesson to engage students, stimulate discussion in the classroom and elicit their prior
knowledge which could inform the planning on the next lesson (Hubber, 2011d). Through
diagnostic assessment, any misconception could be revealed.

In Acid and Base lesson, the teaching strategy which also integrates the diagnostic
assessment is the “think-pair-share” strategy. Think pair share is a cooperative learning
strategy which allows students to think about the question given by the teachers and share
their thoughts with a partner before discussion in the classroom (Srinivas, n.d.). Since this
strategy is done with peers, it is a non-threatening situation. The example of think-pair-
share strategy could be seen in the appendix 1. This strategy then continues with the
questioning technique done by the teachers to probe more on students’ prior knowledge.
Questioning is one of the most common types of informal assessment. In many ways, this
assessment is more natural, easier and efficient to do. By using oral questions, teachers
could make a decision within a second (Wragg, 2001) as the feedback from students is
received through their answer.

In asking the question, Wragg (2001) explains that the teachers should not only ask a “lower
order thinking skill” (recalling facts) but also need to ask questions that include a “higher
order thinking skill” (need more thinking). There are many types of questioning such as
unproductive (questions that testing the knowledge) and productive (questions that could
encourage investigation and discussion), questions that promote thinking, etc (Hubber,
2011e). It is essential for the teachers to cope with all types of questioning in order to
increase the students’ engagement which could promote a better understanding. Some
examples of questions in the acid and base Lesson:

“What do you think the properties of water, vinegar, soap, ammonia and alcohol?” (lower
order and unproductive question)

“What happen to the properties of sodium hydroxide when I mix with sulfuric acid
gradually?” (higher order, productive and promote thinking question)

Geban (2005) has found that the common misconceptions in acid and base among the
students are:

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“Any substance that contains H atom is an acid, OH molecule is a base”

”Reactions of acids and bases always result in a neutral solution”.

As teachers discover the misconceptions through the assessment, they could plan what to
do in the next lesson. In this matter-chemistry class, teachers will choose the next learning
strategy, an experimental learning strategy. Experimental or hands-on activity is a “learning
by doing” in which the understanding is gained when students are doing and experiencing
the activity which we know that it is the highest form of understanding (Emerson, n.d.). In
this phase, students are engaged to work in a group. This model of learning is in line with
the socio-constructivist approach where learning occurs when an individual construct his or
her own knowledge through activities and interaction occurs between peers and/or
teachers (Tytler, draft in press). The example of the activity could be found in the appendix
2. As one of the principles of assessment is based on how students learn, the assessment
tool that is used should be able to show the performance of the students. Since it done in a
group, it would be a good initiative to use a “peer assessment”.

Peer assessment is an assessment that involves other students to assess each other’s work
(Wragg, 2001). By using a peer rating format, it can promote a greater involvement and
responsibility among students (University of Technology Sydney, 2007) in doing the group
work activity. Additionally, by applying peers assessment, students could learn collaborative
skills (Brady and Kennedy, 2001). Peer assessment should be carefully implemented and
should be notified to the students at the beginning of the activity (Wragg, 2001). However,
there are some disadvantages of using peer assessment, for instance, students may do not
have enough ability in evaluating each other and they may not serious in assessing their
peers and let the friendships influence their judgment (University of Technology Sydney,
2007). Thus an assessment could be invalid and unreliable.

The assessment tool that is going to be used in peer assessment is “rubrics”. A rubric is a set
of scoring guide which allows the assessor to evaluate students’ work base on a specific
criteria provided. Basically, there are two types of rubrics: holistic and analytic. The former
requires the assessor to make judgments about the overall quality of students’
understanding which usually follow by the grade. This rubric is more appropriate for a
summative assessment. The later provides feedback for the students that directly related to
the performance criteria being assessed which no grades used (Killen, 2005). This type of
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rubric is more like a formative assessment. In this lesson-the acid and base, it would be used
an analytical rubrics as it purpose is to enhance the learning process. The example of rubrics
for peer assessment can be seen in the appendix 3.

There are some benefits of using rubrics such as it is more objective, reduce marking time,
and help the pupils to understand what will be evaluated. However, it also has some
drawbacks for instance could create ambiguity since the progression of descriptor from one
level to another level is not “linear” (Killen, 2005).

After the experimental phase is done and all the content lesson is clarified by the teachers,
there is another assessment task which is done individually by the students to make sure
that they truly understand. The assessment tool that is going to be used is a multiple choice
question (Appendix 4). This test is a form of question with a four possible answer which
students need to choose the correct answer as they recall the knowledge (Brady and
Kennedy, 2001). In setting the question, only one possible answer is correct while others act
as a “distracters” which looking like a right answers (Wragg, 2001). The major benefit of this
assessment tool is quick and objective in marking meanwhile the drawback is a difficulty of
finding the appropriate distracter and also a possibility that students will guess the right
answer (Brady and Kennedy, 2001). All the assessment that is done throughout and after
the experimental phase namely peer assessment (rubric) and teacher (multiple choice
question) is kind of formal assessment which has authentic evidence on the judgment.

Finally, to complement the assessment process so that the quality learning could be
achieved, students themselves have to participate in assessing their own learning. It is
commonly called self-assessment. Generally, self assessment is used in a school where it
promotes students-centered approach in which students are valued to be engaged in the
learning process (Marsh, 2000). Groundwater-Smith and White (1995, cited in Brady and
Kennedy, 2001) states that peer assessment has a good impact on students learning. It
enables the students to develop a full understanding of their own strength and weakness. It
also could improve students’ awareness of the responsibility for their own learning which
also known as metacognitive thinking (Brady and Kennedy, 2001; Kriewaldt, 2001). The
examples of self assessment are journal or diaries in which student reflect on their own
learning. In these journals or diaries students write about their understanding of the lesson

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and express their feelings on the lesson. An example of journals could be seen in the
appendix 5.

However there are some limitations in implementing self assessment. It may be difficult for
students to assess their own work (Wragg, 2001) especially for the students who never
write a journal and reflect about their learning. Moreover not every student is mature
enough to be honest in assessing himself or herself (Rossana, n.d.). It also found that many
students are not comfortable with writing their feeling in the journal since most students
especially Aceh students are not familiar with this technique.

Conclusion
In order to have an effective and quality learning among students, a formative assessment is
highly essential to be embedded in a learning process. By using the formative assessment
formally and informally, students’ strengths and weaknesses could be discovered which
could inform and influence teacher to make a decision on further lessons. In developing the
assessment instruments, the link between the outcome that teacher want to achieve and
the assessment tool that teacher is going to use need to be considered. Finally, to have a
detailed image of students’ performance, it is suggested to use a multiple assessment tool
which is done by multiple perspective evaluation from teachers, peers and self.

Reference
Athanasou, JA 1997. Introduction to educational testing. University of Technology, Sydney.

Brady, L & Kennedy, K 2001. Celebrating student achievement: assessment and reporting.
Prentice Hall, Malaysia.

Departemen Pendidikan Nasional 2003 Standar Kompetensi Mata Pelajaran Kimia SMA &
MA. Jakarta.

Emerson, RW n.d. Butterfly fields. accesed 22 January 2011,

http://www.butterflyfields.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2
&Itemid=2

Hubber, P 2011a. ‘Week 2: Three broad purpose of assessment’, Module 1 Purposes of

Asessment. Deakin University.

Hubber, P 2011b. ‘Week 2: Principle for Assessment’, Victorian Education Departement,

Module 1 Activity: Principle of Assessment. Deakin University.

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Hubber, P 2011c. ‘Week 3: Notable quotes on formative feedback’, Assessment: Teaching
and learning. Deakin University.

Hubber, P 2011d. ‘Week 3: Key concept associated with assessment’. Power point
presentation. Deakin University.

Hubber, P 2011e. ‘Week 3: Categorizing questioning’, prepared by Deakin University for The
Department of Education and training, Victoria

Huitt, W & Hummel, J 2003. ‘Piaget's theory of cognitive development’, Educational

Psychology Interactive, Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University, accessed 22 January
2011, http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cogsys/piaget.html

Killen, R 2005. Programming and assessment for quality teaching and learning. Thomson,
South Melbourne.

Kriewaldt, J 2001. ‘A thinking geography curriculum’, Interaction, vol. 29, no. 4, accessed 22
January 2011
http://www.gtav.asn.au/interaction/issues/v29n4_dec01/metacognition.htm

Marsh, C 2000. ‘Chapter 17: Assessment and reporting’. Handbook for beginning teachers,
Longman, 2nd edn, Malaysia, pp. 240-263

Mutch & Brown, 2002, Assessment series no 2: A guide for heads of Department. NY:
Learning and Teaching Support Network, Module 1 Purpose of Assessment.

Rossana n.d. accessed 22 January 2011 http://www.scribd.com/Unit-4-

selfassessment/d/3006507

Srinivas, H n.d. ‘Think-pair-share’, Collaborative Learning, accessed 22 January 2011

http://www.gdrc.org/kmgmt/c-learn/think-pair-share.html

Tytler, R draft, in press. ‘Constructivist and socio cultural views of teaching and learning’,
The art of teaching science. In G. Venville & V. Dawson (eds), Perth : Allen and Unwin

University of Technology Sydney, 2007. ‘Peer assessment’, Institute for interactive media
and learning, accessed 22 January 2011,
http://www.iml.uts.edu.au/assessment/students/peer.html

Wragg, EC 2001. Assessment and Learning in the Secondary School. RoutledgeFalmer, New
York.

Xuyan, H 2006. ‘Using formative assessment to improve teaching and learning in Linear
Algebra’, The China Papers, pp. 88-91, accessed 22 January 2011
http://sydney.edu.au/science/uniserve_science/pubs/china/vol6/Math4.pdf

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Appendix
Appendix 1. Think-Pair-Share (Diagnostic assessment)

What do you know about Acid and Base?

Give your best answer to the following questions. Remember that there are
no right or wrong answers. If you don’t know the answer it is OK to leave the
question blank.

Question 1:

Orange Soap Water

Gastric Vinegar Alcohol

Medicine

Tea Caustic Soda HCl

Look at the picture. Sort these objects into three different groups based on the properties. Give
each group a name or label.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

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Appendix 2. Experiment Activity

Material : - red cabbage juice

- Beaker
- NaOH (aq)
- HCl (aq)
- alcohol
- Water
- Vinegar
- Baking soda
- Lemon juice
- Litmus paper
- Measuring glass

Procedure :

1st experiment.

1. Put a small amount of each sample into the beaker

2. Test using drops of red cabbage juice (put a small amount into the sample)
3. Observe (what kinds of chemical properties?)
4. Put the answer in the table

Table 1. using red cabbage juice

NO Sample Observation Properties

What can you conclude from this experiment?

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2nd experiment:

1. Put 10 ml of NaOH (aq) into the beaker

2. Add 1 ml of HCl (aq) into the beaker
3. Test the properties of solution by using the litmus paper
4. Repeat the experiment by adding another 1 ml HCl until it is reaching 10 ml of HCl.

NaOH (aq) HCl (aq) Observation Properties

10 ml -
10 ml 1 ml
10 ml 2 ml

And so on And so on

Write your conclusion about second activity:

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 Appendix 3. Rubrics (Peer assessment)

GROUP ASSESSMENT RUBRIC ON COOPERATIVE GROUP WORK

Group number :

Group
Exemplary Proficient Partially Proficient Incomplete
Criteria Points

A B C
4 points 3 points 2 point 1 points

Focus on the Consistently focus Focus on-task and Focus on-task and Rarely focus on-
Task on- task and know know what needs to know what needs to task and don’t
what needs to be be done most of the be done for a certain know what needs
done all time. Very time. time. Other group to be done. Let
self-directed. members sometimes others do the
remind this person to work.
keep on task.
Participation A team member, A team member, A team member, Sometimes
who contributes a who contribute some who contribute an chooses not to
lot of effort, effort. effort if being asked participate and
encourages and by other member. does not
supports the complete assigned
efforts of others in tasks.
the group.

Shared Follows through on Follows through on Does not follow Seldom or never
Responsibility assigned tasks and most assigned tasks. through on most follows through
does not depend assigned tasks and on assigned tasks.
on others to do the sometimes depends Depends on
work, on others to do the others to do all of
responsibility for work. the work.
task is shared
evenly.

Attitude Always has a Usually has a positive Sometime have a Often have a
positive attitude attitude about the negative attitude negative attitude
about the task and task and the work of about the task and about the task
the work of others. others. the work of others. and the work of
others.

TOTAL POINTS

Note: A, B, C and so on is the name of group member.

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Appendix 4. Multiple choice questions (individually)

Student worksheet

Question 1.
In the list below, circle the acid
NaCl HCl CH3COOH C6H12O6

Question 2
In the list below, circle the base
NH3 CH3COOH KOH C2H5OH

Question 3
Which of the following is neutral?
Water Alcohol Antacid
Soap Lemon juice Sea Water

Question 4
How would u describe acid? And give 3 examples

Question 5
How would u describe base? And give 3 examples

Question 6
Why the properties of chloride acid when it mixing with sodium hydroxide could be acid and base?

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Appendix 5. Journal (self assessment)

Reflective Journal 1 (Acid and Base)

Name: Date:

1. After this lesson, [please choose (a) or (b)]:

(a) I still do not know how to classify acid-base, because

…………………………………………………………………………............………………………………………………………………
………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
(b) Now I know how to classify acid-base, because
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

2. After this lesson, [please choose (a) or (b)]:

(a) I still do not know how to predict the material whether it is acid or base, because
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
(b) Now I know how to predict the material whether it is acid or base, because
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

3. I think the tasks I did were [please choose (a) or (b)]:

(a) easy, because ……………………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
(b) difficult, because ………………………………………………..…………..……………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

4. For the task in this lesson, I prefer to do it [please choose (a) or (b)]:
(a) alone, because ………………………………………………..………………………………………………..…………………………
…………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
(b) with group, because ………………..…………………………………………………………………….……………………………
……………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

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