(Hint: It's Not What Most People Think It Is)
Formative assessment might be the most misunderstood idea in education.
Ask most teachers what formative assessment is, and the answers usually sound like this:
→ Quick quizzes
→ Exit tickets
→ Kahoot games
→ Self-reflection sheets
→ Peer marking
Sounds nice.
Looks interactive.
Feels modern.
But here’s the truth nobody says out loud...
Formative Assessment is NOT a Thing You Do.
Formative assessment is not:
A worksheet., an app, a digital tool or a pop quiz.
Formative assessment is a way of teaching.
It happens inside the learning — not after the learning.
- It’s not an event.
- It’s a process.
- It’s the pulse of the classroom.
The Golden Rule of Formative Assessment
If it counts for marks, it is not formative assessment.
That is summative assessment.
Formative assessment is only for growth.
It is never for grading.
The moment the learner asks: “Does this count?”
The moment it does count...
→ The brain shifts from learning mode into achieving mode.
That’s the difference.
So What Is Formative Assessment Then?
It’s everything a teacher does to help a learner see their own thinking while they are still figuring things out.
It looks like this:
- Classifying ideas
- Linking relationships
- Asking: “Why did you put this here?”
- Asking: “What changed your mind?”
- Letting learners try… stumble… and try again
- No scoreboard
- No penalties
- Only growth
Formative assessment is invisible to outsiders but unforgettable to learners.
It’s the process that makes the summative assessment possible later.
Why Formative Assessment Without Thinking Tools Is a Dead End
This is where most schools get stuck.
They want formative assessment.
They do formative activities.
But learners still wait for: → The memo
→ The answer
→ The teacher’s approval
Why?
Because formative assessment cannot work in a thinking-poor classroom.
Formative assessment only works if learners own the thinking process.
Without Thinking Tools, formative assessment is like planting seeds on concrete.
Nothing grows.
My Definition of Formative Assessment
Formative assessment is the art of making thinking visible, fixable, and growable — while the brain is still playing.
Once the whistle blows, and marks are added?
That’s not formative anymore.
That’s summative.
Know the difference.
Respect the difference.
Design for the difference.
Final Thought
Formative assessment is not a thing to do.
It is a way to teach.
It’s how teachers read the brain-in-action.
It’s how learners discover the joy of figuring things out.
And it’s how classrooms shift from mark collectors to meaning makers.
Because if the brain can’t risk being wrong...
It will never learn to be right.
