What teaching strategy involves ongoing assessment to shape future lessons?

Formative assessment is a teaching strategy that emphasizes the continuous collection of feedback about students' learning and understanding during the instructional process. This ongoing assessment allows educators to gauge the effectiveness of their teaching methods and make real-time adjustments to future lessons based on students' needs and performance.

The purpose of formative assessment is to inform both teachers and students about what needs improvement, offering opportunities for growth before a final evaluation occurs. It typically includes informal methods such as quizzes, observations, discussions, and reflections, which facilitates adaptive teaching strategies to enhance student learning.

In contrast, summative assessment is used to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit—providing a snapshot rather than ongoing feedback. Retrospective assessment focuses on looking back at what students have learned post-instruction, thus it does not actively shape future lessons in the moment. Criterion-referenced assessment measures student performance against a fixed set of criteria or learning standards, which is more about evaluating outcomes rather than shaping instruction through ongoing feedback.