Formative Assessment, or Assessment of Learning, provides informative feedback to learners while they are still learning the topic (Petty, 2014, p.448).

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Formative Assessment (FA) is a continuous process, scaffolding students as they work and providing clear, concise feedback designed to help them to further develop the skills at hand. FA is an area of my teaching practice I have put much research into. I believe that students confidence can have a significant impact on their ability to reach their maximum potential - especially in the arts. Visual Art requires a certain kind of openness, and a willingness to put yourself out there and think outside of the box. As artists we are vulnerable as we put so much of ourselves into our work. Students recognise this and can often be reluctant due to fear of failure, of the wrong answer, or of what their peers might think of their work. Continuous, structured, and relevant formative feedback can build confidence, reassuring students that they are on the right track. In my classroom, I work hard to cultivate communities of practise where we are all artists working together and giving each other feedback. As a teacher it is my role to facilitate learning, to ensure that students are given the criteria and parameters of the educational goals and that they understand how to work within them. But it is also my role to help them look beyond that, and to recognise achievements not measurable in the academic criterion. Self-Assessment, Peer Assessment and Self-Reflection are essential to this, and some examples can be found below.