Which statement best distinguishes formative and summative assessment in PT education, with an example of each?

• A. Formative provides ongoing feedback to improve learning; summative evaluates at course end.
• B. Formative is graded; summative is ungraded.
• C. Formative occurs at the end; summative mid-course.
• D. Formative compares students; summative compares programs.

Answer: (A)

Formative assessment is about guiding learning with feedback as you go. In physical therapy education, this means activities that help a student improve during the training, not just judge what they’ve learned at the end. For example, a skills lab where an instructor observes a student performing a joint mobilization and provides immediate corrections, or a short, low-stakes quiz that explains mistakes right away, are formative because the main goal is to inform practice and help the student improve.

Summative assessment, on the other hand, measures what a student has learned after a period of instruction and is often tied to grading or credentialing. In PT education, a final practical exam where a student demonstrates a complete treatment session to a rubric, or the licensure exam, are summative because they evaluate overall competence at the end of a course or program.

So the statement captures the distinction: formative provides ongoing feedback to improve learning, whereas summative evaluates learning at the end of a course or unit.