The relationship between summative and formative assessment: Impossibility or challenge?

Abstract

In many countries, summative assessment of students’ achievement is imperative. Formative assessment, although recommended by the curricular documents and research, only takes place in the classroom sporadically. The relationship between these two types of assessment is sparse studied until the present. The purpose of this article is to discuss and confront answers that will lead to a possible articulation. I will use the mathematics education to illustrate certain practice situations. Based on these situations and the reflection about the theoretical framework, I will propose a set of principles that will guide the relationship between summative and formative assessment, here understood as a process in complementarity, in relation, rather than simultaneity.

Summative assessment; Formative assessment; Articulation; Mathematical learning