Helen Rey defines formative assessment
- Helen Rey’s post turns formative assessment into a very specific classroom move — brief checks during teaching that change what the teacher does next. - The key detail is the Wiliam line underneath it: evidence only counts as formative if it is actually used to modify teaching. - That matters because schools often stretch the term to cover quizzes, marking, or data drops that happen too late to help.
Formative assessment sounds technical, but the basic idea is simple. It is not “any assessment that happens before the final test.” It is not a mini exam. It is not even feedback on its own. The point is to get evidence of what pupils understand while teaching is still happening, then use that evidence to change the next move. That is the definition Helen Rey was pinning down — and it lines up closely with the version Dylan Wiliam has been arguing for for years. ### What is the actual definition? The cleanest version comes from Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam’s 1998 definition: formative assessment includes activities by teachers or students that generate information, and that information is used as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities. That last clause does the real work. If nothing changes, the assessment may still be useful, but it is not formative in the full sense. (evidencebased.education) ### Why do people get this wrong? Because schools often use “formative” as a bucket term for anything low-stakes. A quiz on Tuesday gets called formative. Marking a book gets called formative. An exit ticket gets called formative. But turns out the label depends less on the format than on what happens next. A multiple-choice hinge question can be formative if it triggers reteaching on the spot. A beautifully designed quiz is not, if the class just moves on regardless. (evidencebased.education) ### What does this look like in a real lesson? Usually it looks small. A teacher asks a carefully chosen question. Pupils show an answer on mini whiteboards. The teacher scans for a pattern — not who is “good” or “bad,” but what misconception is live in the room. Then the teacher stops, models again, changes the example, pairs pupils differently, or adds another practice round. The check is brief, but the response is the point. (discovery.ucl.ac.uk) ### Why is “during the lesson” so important? Because learning drifts fast. Wiliam’s argument is that even when teaching is well planned, pupils diverge in understanding within minutes. That means the teacher cannot safely assume that explanation delivered equals explanation understood. Assessment is central to instruction for exactly that reason — it is how you find out what actually landed before the lesson hardens around a misunderstanding. (dylanwiliam.org) ### Where do questioning moves fit? Right in the middle of it. Wiliam and Siobhán Leahy frame formative assessment around five strategies, including engineering discussions and tasks that elicit evidence of learning, and providing feedback that moves learners forward. So a cold-call sequence, a hinge question, a think-pair-share, or a worked-example check can all count — if they are designed to surface thinking and help the teacher adapt. (discovery.ucl.ac.uk) ### What does this mean for primary teachers? Mostly that the translation is practical, not philosophical. You do not need a new assessment system. You need fast routines that reveal thinking from the whole class — oral rehearsal, finger votes when answers are tightly designed, mini whiteboards, short retrieval prompts, and quick reteach moments. The age phase changes the packaging, but not the logic. Evidence first, adjustment second. (evidencebased.education) ### What is the catch? The catch is that formative assessment is easy to imitate badly. Wiliam’s camp has warned about “lethal mutations” — practices that keep the surface features but lose the mechanism. Lots of checking, lots of data, lots of feedback, but no instructional change. That can feel busy and rigorous while missing the thing that makes the approach work. (evidencebased.education) ### Bottom line Rey’s framing matters because it strips the term back to its useful core. Formative assessment is not a resource type or a policy category. It is a decision loop inside teaching — check, interpret, adjust, teach again. (evidencebased.education)
