Perception of formative and summative assessments in fourth-semester nursing students at a public university in Ecuador

Abstract

Introduction.  Assessment for learning or formative assessment plays a key role in improving student learning, allowing progress to be measured that contributes to the end of the semester generating summative assessments for the approval or disapproval of the semester.

Objective. To analyze the perception of formative and summative evaluations in fourth-semester nursing students.

Method. An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out, the universe was constituted by 113 fourth-semester students, the sample constituted in a simple random way by 88 participants, with a confidence level of 95%; and a margin of error of 5%. The validated assessment preference inventory scale was used, structured by 69 items categorized into 3 dimensions. The statistical analysis of the data was done through descriptive statistics for the calculation of mean, standard deviations, frequencies and percentages using the SPSS version 25.0 program with an acquired license.

Results. The age range of fourth-semester students ranges from 19 to 25 years old, and the predominant gender is female, in evaluation preferences students prefer multiple-choice evaluations and to a lesser extent written tests and oral exams. In the role and responsibility approach, they consider it feasible for the teacher to give a list of exam questions from which they can choose and consider having students perform the exam questions in lower weighting.

Conclusions. The evaluations that the teacher performs directly are summative evaluations during the teaching and learning process in the training of nurses at a public university, and are related to the perceptions of the students, which denote the weaknesses in the formative evaluations that are essential to provide feedback on each activity that is taught, in order to identify learning gaps and provide positive feedback that allows contributing to the formation of the Theoretical and practical knowledge.