The effects of formative assessment to students' academic achievement, attitude and self-regulation skills

Formative assessment is an assessment approach, which has focused on determining the students' learning lack and organizing teaching via using feedback actively and continuously in terms of learners' learning rather than marking grade. The aim of the study is to investigate the effects of formative assessment upon students' academic achievement, their attitudes towards the lesson and self-regulatory skills. Mixed method was used in this research. The nested model was implemented in the study, which is one of the mixed method designs. Accordingly, quantitative method was a dominant method while qualitative method was used as a supporter in the study. Nonequivalent control group pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design was used in quantitative dimension and case study was used in the qualitative dimension. The sample of the study was consisted of 45 students who have been studying at 5th grade and the teachers implementing the experience. Of eight classes, one control group and experimental group were determined with random sampling method. The experiment was implemented within 28-week. "Social sciences achievement test", "Inventory of attitudes towards social sciences", "Self-regulatory learning skills questionnaire", "Observation form" and "Semi-structured interview form" were used as data collection instrument in the study. Independent samples t test, one sample covariance analysis (ANCOVA), multi samples multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) were used in data analysis. Summative assessment in the control group has developed positively students' academic achievement, their attitudes towards the lesson and self-regulatory skills according to the results of the study but it has not increased significantly. Formative assessment in the experimental group has increased significantly the students' academic achievement, the attitudes towards the lesson and self-regulatory skills. In terms of post-test results, academic achievement ve attitudes towards the lesson the students' in the experimental group in which formative assessment implementations was done have determined higher significantly than the academic achievement and attitudes towards the lesson of the students in the control group. Although formative assessment implementations have been affected positively upon the students' self-regulatory skills, it has determined that the difference between the students in the control and experimental groups has not been statistically significant. According to the observations made by the researcher and the interview with the teachers and students, the perception about formative assessment implementations is pointed out to be relatively positive. Formative assessment implementations have been emphasized to be used frequently in the secondary schools and so it must be as a dominant assessment approach in teaching. Key Words: Academic achievement, formative assessment, the attitudes towards the lesson, self-regulation