More is not always better: the nonlinear relationship between formative assessment strategies and reading achievement

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the relationship between formative assessment and reading achievement in Hong Kong, a Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) society. 4,837 Hong Kong students were surveyed in a nine-item questionnaire that was used as indicator variable of formative assessment strategies. The study used multi-group structural equation modelling (MG-SEM) to examine the effects of formative assessment strategies on reading achievement across low-, medium-, and high-achievers controlling for gender and social economic status (SES) effects. The result showed that after controlling for SES and gender effects, there was significant effect of formative assessment strategies with low- and medium-reading achievers but not with high-reading achievers. Implications are drawn to inform formative assessment research and practice relevant to students’ reading achievement in CHC societies and other educational contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Formative assessment
• reading assessment
• reading achievement
• Confucian heritage culture (CHC)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in OECD PISA 2009 dataset at: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisa2009database-downloadabledata.htm

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by The Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning (Code: TP2018068) given to Professor Yuyang Cai.

Notes on contributors

Yuyang Cai

Yuyang Cai, PhD is Professor of School of Languages and Founding Director of Centre for Language Education and Assessment Research (CLEAR), Shanghai University of International Business and Economics. His areas of interest include language testing, self-regulated learning, academic motivation and systems theory. He is an active user of advanced psychometric and multivariate models and also developed the statistic model of Multi-Layered Moderation Analysis (MLMA). He can be reached at [email protected] with details of his publications at ORCID.

Min Yang

Min Yang, PhD is an Assistant professor of Department of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at The Education University of Hong Kong. As a teacher educator, she works with student teachers and supervise their teaching and projects in schools. Her publications and research interests are in pedagogies, and assessment and feedback strategies that support productive student learning.

Juanjuan Yao

Juanjuan Yao, PhD, is a lecture in EFL in School of Languages, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics. She does research in formative assessment and learning analytics. She can be reached at [email protected]