Chinese Journal of Science Education


Vol. 12 No. 4 , Pages 469 - 490 , 2004

Assessing Effectiveness of Formative Assessment Models on Students’ Learning Achievement in e-Learning Environment (Article written in Chinese)

Tzu-Hua WANG, Kuo-Hua WANG, Wei-Lung WANG, & Shih-Chieh HUANG

Abstract

This study used a quasi-experimental design to explore the effectiveness of formative assessment strategies on junior high school students’ achievement in an e-Learning environment. Two e-Learning packages were developed according to the learning content of ‘Digestion’ and ‘Evolution’ in the Nature and Life Technology Curriculum, which is currently implemented in junior high schools in Taiwan. A Web-based assessment and test analysis system, called the WATA system, was built into the e-Learning packages allowing learners to take formative tests. Three hundred and eighty-eight students, from ten classes of five junior high schools in the central area of Taiwan, were invited to participate in the study. These students’ classes were randomly assigned into two groups to learn either ‘Digestion’ or ‘Evolution’ topics via the e-Learning packages. Furthermore, the students in each group were randomly assigned into three subgroups to receive different formative assessment strategies. These three subgroups included ‘FAM-WATA’ group, ‘N-WATA’ group, and ‘PPT’ group. The ‘FAM-WATA’ group received a web-based formative assessment with six special FAM-WATA strategies. The ‘N-WATA’ group received a web-based formative assessment with general strategies; The ‘PPT’ group received a paper-and-pencil type formative assessment. Results from a survey indicated the participants agreed that the six FAM-WATA strategies including: ‘Pass & Delete,’ ‘Provide with No Answer,’ ‘Query Scores,’ ‘Ask Questions,’ ‘Check Personal Answer History of Each Item,’ and ‘Qualifier Rewarded with Flash Animation’ were useful for their WBI learning. There was no significant difference on the opinion mean scores between female and male students. Furthermore, it was found that significant differences existed in achievement mean scores among the three subgroups of both the ‘Digestion’ topic learning group and the ‘Evolution’ learning group. In addition, the ‘FAM-WATA’ group performed better than the ‘N-WATA’ group, and the ‘N-WATA’ group performed better than the ‘PPT group’. No significant differences existed on the achievement mean scores between female and male students.

Keywords: FAM-WATA (Formative Assessment Module of the WATA system); WATA (Web-based Assessment and Test Analysis System); Web-based formative assessment; WBI (Web-Based Instruction); nature and life technology curriculum of junior high school High school

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