Tests and midterms given during the running semester are, in the mindset of most educators, located somewhere between formative and summative assessment: more serious than homework, but still—as opposed to the final exam—mostly a learning opportunity. In the mindset of most learners, however, these venues are purely summative—they “flunked” or “did well” on a test, but mostly, they got it over with. Few students come to office hours to understand what they did wrong. If they had a bad day, they have no second chance to correct their mistakes, but more importantly, they do not receive any immediate incentive or reward to address detected deficiencies, or for deeper learning, reviewing, and understanding of the material after the test is over.

Topics
Educational assessment
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© 2006 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2006
American Association of Physics Teachers
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