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Distinctions are often made between formative (assessment for learning) and summative (assessment of learning) assessment, although in practice formative and summative assessment are more likely to form a continuum, with for example, formative assessment contributing to summative assessment.

Assessment for learning is a concept in which the focus is on effective assessment. The Assessment for Learning CETL (AfL) suggests that effective assessment:

• 'performs a powerful formative function, enabling all students to enhance their achievements
• provides rigorous, reliable and valid verification of student performance without allowing this summative function to dominate learning and teaching
• operates within a coherent assessment strategy, employing a diversity of methods to assess genuine and valued learning
• develops students as active participants in their own assessment, enabling them to develop as autonomous learners and effective professionals’
  (Assessment for Learning: Current Practice Exemplars from the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Assessment for Learning)

This paper provides a useful introduction to assessment for learning and describes the potential for formative assessment and feedback to enhance learning and assessment.

The AfL website provides an extensive range of resources.

See, for example, their signpost leaflets for ideas to use in teaching.

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