French teachers’ informal formative assessment in the context of inquiry-based learning

Résumé En

Discursive formative assessment (FA) practices during instructionhave grown in importance in the education literature as a way ofimproving teaching and learning. This study involves three yearsof design-based research as part of an educational project. Weexamine lower secondary school teachers’ qualitative InformalFormative assessment (IFA) practices during inquiry-basedScience, Mathematics and Technology-Engineering (STEM) lessons.In-service teachers (N = 9) were filmed during a whole-classroomdiscussion session with respect to students’ alternative solutionsor predictions in the context of problem-solving or investigating anatural phenomenon. The analysed discussions in the project’sthird year lasted 15–30 minutes. The ESRU (Eliciting, Studentresponse, Recognising and Using phases) model is adapted toanalyse IFA practices, while also considering the role played bystudents. Inquiry dimensions (e.g. conceptual and epistemic) wereused to examine the inquiries given priority in these discussions.The results show frequent (>30%) ESRU complete-cycleimplementations by most teachers, which is associated witheffective IFA practices. Frequent complete-cycle implementationled to teachers eliciting the same students at different momentsof the session with longer consecutive cycles. The dimensions theteachers implement are more epistemic than conceptual.Moreover, students took charge of several ESRU phases.