Effect of formative assessment of students on their academic performance in Department of Kriya Sharir

Assessment is an integral part of the teaching learning process. It helps us to know the success of specific teaching & students’ progress. Formative assessment is the informal way of knowing students progress. To evaluate the effect of Formative Assessment of the students on their Academic performance this project was undertaken. The randomly selected group of 40 students was taught the topic Rasa & Rakta Dhatu at same time by using different types of teaching methods as didactic & demonstration. Then they randomly divided into two groups. Group A (N =20) was Control Group. No any intervention given to the students. Group B (N =20) was Experimental Group. This group was given the interventions by conducting quiz and group discussion on the topic of Rasa & Rakta Dhatu. Pretest and posttest based on MCQs to test recall memory & SAQs test to check analyzing power were developed on the topic of Rasa & Rakta Dhatu for both groups. The tests were then collected, scored and compiled. The students of Group B showed statistically significant improvement in recall memory which was tested by MCQs test (p=0.0001) & to test descriptive & analyzing power SAQs test was framed. Analysis showed enhancement in marks in SAQs but the result was not statistically significant. It was concluded that students assessed by formative assessment significantly score high than students who were not assessed. Formative assessment shows good effect on academic performance of the students & helps in enhancement of learning.


Introduction
Learning is a process resulting in some change or modification in the learner's thinking, feeling and doing. The change may be temporary or permanent. In learning process assessment is very important. It is vital part of the education process. It helps us to know the success of specific teaching & students' progress. It measures if and how students are learning and if the teaching methods are effectively relaying the intended messages. 1 Black & Wiliam in 1998 define assessment broadly to include all activities that teachers and students undertake to get information that can be used diagnostically to alter teaching and learning. Under this definition, assessment encompasses teacher observation, classroom discussion, and analysis of student work, including homework and tests. 2 Assessment can be done as diagnostic, formative & summative assessment. The diagnostic assessment can be done to identify areas of student need, or gaps in understanding, relative to key concept areas so that intervention activities can be efficiently and effectively targeted to students' levels of understanding and areas of need. 3 During learning process, the continuous assessment is more likely to be formative, process-oriented, informal, internal, learner-involved, and/or self-referenced in nature. It can take the form of daily work (e.g. essays, quizzes, presentation and participation in class), projects/term papers and practical work (e.g. laboratory work, fieldwork, clinical procedures, drawing practice). Assessment become formative when the information is used to adapt teaching and learning to meet student needs. When teachers know how students are progressing and where they are having trouble, they can use this information to make necessary instructional adjustments, such as re-teaching, trying alternative instructional approaches, or offering more opportunities for practice. These activities can lead to improved student success. 4 The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. It does not contribute to the final mark given for the module; instead it contributes to learning through providing feedback. It indicates what is good about a piece of work and why this is good; it also indicates what is not so good and how the work could be improved. Effective formative feedback will affect what the student and the teacher does next.
In assessment we measure the students for their performance and correct them in case of any deviation. Formative assessment is the task which is used to help the learner and the teacher to know the progress of the students' academic performance in an informal way. 5 The results of formative assessment are never used for final pass or fail decision. 6 If this is done then the learners may try to hide their weaknesses and the main aim of formative assessment will be lost.
The Summative assessment is generally carried out at the end of course. 5 It takes place after the learning has been completed and provides information and feedback that sums up the teaching and learning process. 6 It demonstrates the extent of a learner's success in meeting the assessment criteria used to gauge the intended learning outcomes of a module or programme. Summative assessment is used to quantify achievement, to reward achievement. 7 The marks of summative type of assessment are included in the pass or fail decision. So, this assessment does not give the direct feedback & chance to correct for any deviation. Summative assessment is more productoriented and assesses the final product, whereas formative assessment focuses on the process toward completing the product. Once the project is completed, no further revisions can be made. If, however, students are allowed to make revisions, the assessment becomes formative, where students can take advantage of the opportunity to improve. The basic purpose of formative assessment is to help the learner know about his progress. It facilitates the improvement of teaching learning system also.
Keeping this view this study was designed to find out the impact of formative assessment on academic performance in Department of Kriya Sharir.

Aim & Objectives of the Study
The Aim of proposed study is to evaluate the benefits of Formative Assessment of the students.

Objectives of the Study 1. Short Term -To evaluate the effect of Formative
Assessment of the students on their Academic performance.

Long Term -To make the students as competent
Physician in field of Ayurveda.

Selection of subjects
A group of 40 students out of 50 students studying in I B.A.M.S. class was selected randomly for the study. The students volunteered themselves after an orientation session in classroom. The institutional Ethics committee (Datta Meghe Institute of Health Sciences University) approved the protocol for this study. The details of the study explained to the subjects, their signed informed consent was taken.

Study design
The study included 40 students. The selected sample was divided into two equal groups, of which, one was experimental group and other was control group. The topic Rasa & Rakta Dhatu was taught to both groups at same time by using different types of teaching methods as didactic & demonstration. The two interventions of formative assessment in the form of Quiz & group discussion were given to that of experimental group. Group A (N =20) -Control Group: No any intervention given to the students.
Group B (N =20) -Experimental Group: This group was given the interventions by conducting quiz and group discussion on the topic of Rasa & Rakta Dhatu.

Methodology
Nature of the study was Interventional. The study used a pretest & posttest for both groups. The study design included the participants randomly assign into control group and experimental group. A major strength of this design was to ensure that the students' varying levels of pretreatment knowledge was evenly distributed between the two treatment groups, thus eliminating the possibility of placing more participants into one group who already possessed a higher ( Lastly feedback was taken to understand students' perception on formative assessment.

Discussion
In relation to the main aim of this research, the results are conclusive. The students that participated in formative assessment obtained better examination results in post conducted test than the ones that did not. In pre test both groups students were at equal levels. (Table 6) The same  observations were observed after changing the group for  intervention with selection of new topic (Table 12). Moreover, academic achievement in formative assessment was an important predictor of academic achievement. The results show that most of the students that got good marks in formative assessment also obtained good results in the Term examination. However, failing in formative assessment is not a predictor of examination failure. The students show statistically significant improvement in recall memory which was tested by MCQs test (Test 1) & to test descriptive & analyzing power tie SAQs test was framed. Students of experimental group show enhancement in marks but the result was not statistically significant. Students' perception for formative assessment was positive feedback, that it definitely enhances their academic achievement.

Conclusion
It was concluded that students assessed by formative assessment significantly high score than students who were not assessed. Formative assessment shows good effects on academic performance of the students. It gives us timely student achievement information which is useful to monitor the student's progress in terms of what they understand & where they are? It is also useful for teacher to assess the effectiveness of their instructions & also warrants the teacher to modify teaching way.

Limitations
The results of formative assessment are never used for final pass or fail decision. So the students do not take them very seriously.

Source of Funding
None.