Hello {{first name | reader…}}Tom Sherrington and Valentina Devid here!

Thanks for welcoming us into ⚗️DistillED. Assessment happens constantly in classrooms, but too often it doesn’t change what happens next.

In this piece, we reframe the idea—from formative assessment to formative action—and show how short, deliberate action loops turn evidence into immediate classroom decisions.

One of the persistent challenges in teaching is to make assessment truly formative. We assess students constantly but the question is whether those assessments lead to anything different happening next. Too often, we gather information, mark work, or ask questions, yet the instructional response is weak, delayed, or absent. The result is that assessment becomes descriptive rather than transformative.

A helpful reframing comes from the work of the Formative Action School. We argue that we should shift our language  - our  thinking - from formative assessment to formative action. Our central claim is simple but powerful: evidence of learning is only meaningful when it leads to action within the learning process itself.

This is where the role of WalkThrus becomes particularly relevant. WalkThrus offer teachers practical, high-leverage techniques that help translate formative intentions into consistent classroom action. They provide the “how” that enables formative action to move beyond principle into daily practice. When combined with a clear conceptual understanding of formative action, WalkThrus help ensure that responsive teaching is not left to improvisation, but becomes deliberate and embedded.

We will return later to explore this connection in more depth—examining how the conceptual clarity of formative action and the practical precision of WalkThrus reinforce one another in the classroom.

We find that the word assessment has come to imply something evaluative or terminal. In contrast, formative action positions evidence as part of an ongoing pedagogical process in which teachers and students use information to decide what to do next. If assessment is seen as an endpoint, it leads to recording and reporting; if it is part of an action cycle, it leads to adaptation.

We emphasise the need for short loops embedded within lessons—moments where teachers intentionally gather information about student understanding and immediately adjust teaching in response. These loops are not improvised; they follow a deliberate sequence:

Note: the ‘Example’ column in this table was added by Jamie Clark.

The power of the loop lies not in asking the question, but in how the answer changes what happens next. If nothing in the instruction shifts, the question was merely a check. It becomes formative only when it leads to a deliberate instructional decision.

Many discussions of formative assessment focus on techniques — mini-whiteboards, exit tickets, diagnostic quizzes. These tools are useful, but they are not the essence of formative action. What matters is the intention behind their use and the pedagogical decision that follows.

Our three strategies make this explicit. When we organise a short loop of formative action, the aim is to uncover misconceptions or gaps in prerequisite knowledge so that we can adapt instruction immediately. When we develop a sense for quality, the aim is to clarify standards so students can judge and improve their own work. When we organise feedback processes, the aim is to increase students’ independent mastery through carefully calibrated levels of support.

In each case, the strategy serves a specific purpose in the learning process. The whiteboard, the question, the feedback template — these are merely vehicles. The crux lies in what we are trying to make visible, what decision we intend to take, and how that decision moves students closer to independent mastery.

Without that clarity of purpose, tools become rituals. With it, they become instruments of deliberate pedagogy.

Planning changes fundamentally when we design for formative action. Responsiveness is not improvisation; it is prepared responsiveness.

Formative action starts with what we call a pedagogical roadmap: a deliberate internal design in which the teacher clarifies the intended learning goal and mentally maps the route from students’ current understanding to independent mastery.

This means asking in advance:

In this first step, the teacher makes explicit predictions. These predictions guide what kind of evidence needs to be gathered later in the lesson.

Only after this orientation do we design investigative moments: deliberate pauses where we check whether our predictions were accurate. The purpose of these moments is not to see “how it went,” but to test whether students are progressing along the intended route.

Instead of planning only activities, we plan decision points. Instead of asking “What will students do?”, we ask “Where will I need information in order to decide what to do next?”

The lesson therefore does not unfold mechanically according to schedule. It follows a pedagogical roadmap — one that can bend when evidence shows that students are not yet ready to proceed.

Practice becomes iterative refinement: attempt, feedback, adjustment, and reattempt. Evidence gathered during practice continuously informs the next instructional move, preventing the reinforcement of errors and making practice genuinely productive.

Formative action reminds us that teaching is not a sequence of explanations punctuated by checks. It is a dynamic process of enquiry, adjustment and refinement. Assessment is not something we do to learning, but something we do with it. When formative action loops are tight and purposeful, assessment becomes the mechanism that drives learning forward.

— Tom Sherrington & Valentina Devid

If you want more

👉 Get the book Formative Action: From Instrument to Design by Valentina Devid, René Kneyber, Dominique Sluijsmans, et al.

👉 Read Tom’s blog Formative Action: a brilliant teaching concept from @toetsrevolutie

👉 Download the Transformative Feedback one-page guide written by The Formative Action School

👉 Read the DistillED edition on Adaptive Teaching

👉 Explore the DistillED Inclusive Teaching & Checking Understanding one-page guides

The Formative Action Model One-Pager
To help you put these ideas into practice immediately, download the Formative Action One-Page Guide — a classroom-ready summary designed to help you turn evidence of learning into deliberate instructional action, ensuring assessment actively shapes teaching and improves mastery and independence.

This week, ⚗️DistillED+ members get access to a Formative Action Loops CPD PowerPoint and a Printable Formative Action Checklist, breaking down how to turn evidence of learning into deliberate instructional action through short, purposeful loops — so assessment actively shapes teaching rather than simply recording it.