Insights and Challenges Faced by the Faculty in the Implementation of Formative Assessment - Mixed Method Study

Background: The term assessment refers to a systematic way of gaining information about student learning, using a variety of methods and procedures. Formative assessments (FAs) are conducted at regular intervals in the academic year with the express objective of giving students feedback, so they can understand and track their own progress. Summative assessments generally serve as an indicator to ensure that a student has met the minimum requirement for progression to the next stage of study. Objectives: To find out the practice of FA among medical college faculty in India and to explore the challenges in the implementation of FA in medical colleges in India and solutions to overcome it from faculty’s perspective. Materials and Methods: It was a sequential mixed methods study conducted among faculties from various medical colleges. In Quantitative phase, an online questionnaire survey and in Qualitative phase, Key Informant Interviews were conducted among experts in medical education. The study was conducted from June 2023 through July 2023 for 2 months. A total of 230 medical faculties were included in the study. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 25 software package for quantitative data. Discrete variables were presented as frequency and percentages, and continuous variables as mean and standard deviation (SD). Thematic analysis of the transcripts was done manually by two authors trained in qualitative research to increase the trustworthiness in the results. Results: The mean age of participants was 38.6± (7.9) SD years. Among them, 103 (44.8%) were females and 127 (55.2%) were males. The mean teaching experience of the participants was 8.22± (6.6) SD years, ranging from 1 to 39 years. The majority of the participants was from private medical colleges 187 (81.3%). Among the faculties 126 (54.8%) of the participants conducted FA regularly, among the participants, 103 (44.8%) provided feedback to students regularly, and 127 (55.2%) received faculty development program. Lack of time, faculty not trained, and vast curriculum are some challenges. Conclusion: FA is the need of the hour and has been associated with multiple benefits. Although there are multiple challenges in its successful implementation, they can be overcome by proper planning and faculty development.