Formative assessment has been proven
to be highly effective in
improving student understanding. Nevertheless, many instructors struggle
to engage in this practice, particularly when working in large-enrollment
classrooms. To facilitate and foster the implementation of formative
assessment in chemistry courses, undergraduate students at our institution
have been trained to gather and analyze formative assessment data
in real time in different classrooms. These “Learning Researchers”
generate written reports that instructors use to inform their practice.
In this article, we characterize what learning researchers involved
in this project tended to notice in their observations and the nature
of the interpretations that they built. The findings of our qualitative
study provide insights into the affordances and potential constraints
of using undergraduate students to collect and interpret formative
assessment data to inform instructional practices in large-classroom
environments.
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