Written under the guidance and with the support of Dylan Wiliam, Kate Jones writes about five formative assessment strategies in action in the classroom, with a foreword from Professor John Hattie. Building on the work of Wiliam and Siobhan Leahy, ideas are shared and misconceptions with formative assessment are addressed with lots of practical advice. Formative assessment in action focuses on five evidence-informed strategies that the teacher can use to support their learners to make progress. Formative assessment can help both the teacher and student understand what needs to be learned and how this can be achieved.
During the learning process, formative assessment can identify students' progress as well as highlighting gaps in their knowledge and understanding, therefore giving the teacher useful insight as to what feedback and instruction can be provided to continue to move learners forward. Formative assessment takes place during the learning process. It continually informs the teacher and student as to how learning can move forward as it is happening. This is different to summative assessment, which focuses on the evaluation of student learning at the end of the process. There's a range of case studies from different subjects and key stages to show how formative assessment can be embedded across a curriculum.
The five strategies
As the author lists them in her own summary for Evidence Based Education:
- Clarifying, sharing and understanding learning intentions and success criteria.
- Engineering effective discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learning.
- Providing feedback that moves learners forward.
- Activating students as learning resources for one another.
- Activating students as owners of their own learning.
Who it is for
Classroom teachers in any phase, and the leaders who run teaching and learning or CPD. It suits a staff reading group or a department working on one strategy at a time, more than a whole assessment policy review.
About the book
- Author: Kate Jones, written under the guidance of Dylan Wiliam, with a foreword by Professor John Hattie.
- Publisher: John Catt Educational. Paperback published 13 September 2021, ISBN 9781913622770; also available as an ebook.
Sources: publisher listing on Hachette UK; the five strategies as listed in Kate Jones's summary of evidence-based formative assessment strategies. Checked 13 October 2026.
