Formative Assessment Technique Selector

What This Skill Does

Selects the most appropriate formative assessment technique for a specific learning moment — during instruction, after guided practice, at the end of a lesson, or between lessons — and provides a complete implementation guide including how to interpret the responses and what to do next based on what the data shows. Unlike generic lists of formative assessment ideas, this skill matches the technique to the specific moment, purpose, and practical constraints. A technique that works brilliantly at the end of a lesson (exit ticket) is useless during a teacher explanation; a technique that works for checking factual recall (mini-whiteboards) is inappropriate for checking deep understanding (which requires explanation, not single answers). AI is specifically valuable here because selecting the right technique requires matching the assessment purpose (what am I checking?), the timing (when in the lesson?), the response format (do I need quick data from everyone, or deep data from a few?), and the practical constraints (class size, resources, time).

Evidence Foundation

Black & Wiliam (1998) established formative assessment as one of the highest-leverage interventions in education (effect size 0.4–0.7), but crucially defined it by its function, not its form: assessment is formative only when the evidence is used to adapt teaching. Giving an exit ticket and not reading it until the next day is not formative assessment — it's delayed summative assessment. Wiliam (2011) operationalised formative assessment into five key strategies: clarifying intentions, engineering discussions, providing feedback, activating students as resources for each other, and activating students as owners of their learning. Leahy et al. (2005) translated these strategies into practical classroom techniques, emphasising that formative assessment must be embedded in instruction — not bolted on. Heritage (2010) distinguished between planned formative assessment (designed into the lesson in advance) and interactive formative assessment (responsive, in-the-moment), arguing that both are necessary but serve different purposes. Wiliam & Leahy (2015) provided comprehensive implementation guidance, emphasising that the best techniques collect evidence from ALL students, not just volunteers.

Input Schema

The teacher must provide:

• Learning moment: When in the sequence. e.g. "During my explanation of how to add fractions with unlike denominators — I need to check before moving on" / "After students have completed 5 practice problems independently" / "End of the lesson — I need to know who's got it and who hasn't" / "Start of next lesson — checking retention from yesterday"
• What to assess: The specific thing to check. e.g. "Can students identify the common denominator?" / "Do students understand why the character made that decision?" / "Can students apply the formula to a new context?"
• Student level: Year group. e.g. "Year 7"

Optional (injected by context engine if available):

• Class size: Number of students