Formative assessment and retrieval practice: two high-impact habits for every lesson

What formative assessment is, and is not

Formative assessment is any practice in which evidence of student learning is gathered, interpreted and used to adjust teaching while learning is still happening. A quiz is not formative in itself; it becomes formative when the results change what the teacher or student does next.

Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam’s 1998 review, published as “Inside the Black Box”, brought international attention to the potential of assessment for learning. Wiliam and Marnie Thompson later organised the practice into five key strategies:

1. Clarifying, sharing and understanding learning intentions and success criteria.
2. Engineering effective classroom discussions and tasks that elicit evidence of learning.
3. Providing feedback that moves learners forward.
4. Activating students as learning resources for one another.
5. Activating students as owners of their own learning.

Quick formative techniques

• Hinge questions: a single multiple-choice question at a pivotal point in the lesson, with distractors based on common misconceptions. Responses show whether to move on or reteach.
• Mini whiteboards: every student answers at once, so you see the whole class, not just volunteers.
• Exit tickets: one or two questions at the end of a lesson that directly test the objective.
• No hands up, cold calling: everyone thinks, anyone might answer, and wait time is protected.
• Peer explanation: students explain their method to a partner, a strategy supported by PISA 2025’s finding that peer-to-peer tutoring is associated with higher science performance.

Retrieval practice

Retrieval practice means bringing knowledge back to mind. Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke’s 2006 research on the testing effect showed that students who practised recalling material remembered more a week later than students who spent the same time restudying it. The act of retrieval strengthens memory.

Ways to build retrieval into lessons

• Do Now quizzes: five questions at the start of a lesson, mixing last lesson, last week and last month.
• Brain dumps: students write everything they remember about a topic, then check their notes to fill gaps.
• Spaced review: revisit topics after increasing intervals rather than all at once.
• Low stakes: keep scores private or ungraded so the focus is on learning, not judgement.

Bringing them together

A retrieval quiz is also formative evidence. If most students miss the same question, that is a signal to reteach. If a few students miss it, it is a signal for targeted support, perhaps with differentiation and remediation.