Interactive oral assessment: Resolving tensions between formative and summative assessment

Assessments are vital to student learning and are seen to be a key factor in preparing students for work and life rather than just tools for measuring student learning (Schellekens et al. 2021). Trends in adult education point clearly to the importance of assessment for learning (rather than assessment of learning), along with learning-oriented assessment (LOA) for lifelong learning (Bin Mubayrik 2020). Assessment for learning is an idea that has come to replace the traditional notion of formative assessment aimed more at student learning than evaluation against standards of achievement. However, there is an ongoing tension between the sometimes conflicting purposes of formative and summative assessment (Schellekens et al. 2021).

This presentation focuses on addressing the specific challenge of developing learning-oriented assessment that is summative and also formative in nature using an innovative approach called Interactive Oral Assessment (IOA). The IOA is an unscripted, synchronous conversation between the assessor and student (or groups of students) based on an authentic scenario which can be performed online or face-to-face (Sotiriadou et al. 2020; Scheele et al. 2021).

The data used for this paper are drawn from a mixed method research project run for a duration of two years with responses from 193 students across 24 teaching subjects and which included student surveys, staff focus groups, and autoethnographic reflections.

The findings confirm and extend on that of Sotiriadou et al. (2020) showing high levels of student engagement with the process of learning and preparing for the IOA. Student comments show that their preparation for the IOA and dialogic engagement during the IOA demonstrate characteristics of formative assessment and constructivist learning principles even when it is used as a summative assessment, i.e., the assessor can evaluate processes of learning as well as outputs. In this way, it is argued that an IOA is a type of summative assessment that also incorporates the assessment for learning principles of formative assessment. Further, from an academic perspective it is found that the IOA was able to satisfy the requirements of summative assessment and yet still provide a learning rich experience for the students.

An IOA approach to assessment will be welcomed by academics seeking to bridge this gap between formative and summative assessment by providing engaging, interactive learning experiences for students and promoting lifelong learning throughout the whole assessment process.