Effect of Formative Quizzes on Teacher Candidates’ Learning in General Chemistry

Abstract

Formative assessment or assessment for learning is one of the most emphasized educational innovations around the world. Two of the common strategies that could be used in formative assessment are use of summative tests for formative purposes and comment only marking. We utilized these strategies in the form of formative quizzes in a general chemistry course and measured its effect on students’ learning. The results of our weak-experimental design, which was conducted with 124 pre-service elementary school teachers in an undergraduate level general chemistry class, showed that formative assessment alone may not be enough to improve students’ learning. The classroom context and background and attitude of students should be taken into account, which are important factors that influence student learning and achievement. In the study, two instruments and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data.