The impact of formative assessment on student learning

This paper examines the use of formative assessment in UK Law Schools using the law of contract as a typical undergraduate law subject to illustrate current practice. The UK Centre for Legal Education provided research funding to carry out the project and a full report which explores in more depth some of the literature on assessment will be available on the UKCLE website (http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/) in 2006. Students and lecturers at a number of old and new universities were interviewed to establish whether there was any type of formal formative assessment, the nature of it and its perceived value in helping students to learn. There were so many variables that it is not possible to conclude that undertaking formative assessment contributed to an improved pass rate in the final summative assessment, but students indicated they appreciated the opportunity to be given feedback at an early stage and that this assessed work did not count towards their final grade.