Formative and Summative Research

In my FYP, there are several types of research method I can use to support my project. Two of the most common kinds of research are Formative Research and Summative Research. Each of the methods have their own importance but both of it is quite useful for people who want to do some research for their project.

Formative research is a kind of developmental research or action research that is intended to improve design theory for designing instructional practices or processes. It’s usually used to determine and refine the project planning process, provides accurate, up-to-date information to strategically develop that project. Formative research is used during their development or early implementation of the design project to guide the entire process. In this type of research, they could use many methods and different sources to take into account different perspectives and crosscheck the data obtained. Formative Research is important because By using this research method, people are able to identify problems at an early stage of process and refine as needed, pinpoint and highlighting data in programs, to gain insight into the subject the project deals with, helps in problem identification and helps researchers have a better understanding of its target audience.

Meanwhile, Summative research is done at the end of a project and is used to determine its success. It can also gauge customer satisfaction or aid in the development of future projects. Summative research is used to frame the outcome of an investigative process. It’s usually use to collecting assessments data that allows teachers to evaluate the growth of their students. The data is used to reflect on the way of teaching and make necessary adjustments depending on the results, as well as to judge the efficiency of the program/course itself. People conduct summative research by collecting data through questionnaires, surveys, interviews, observations and testing. The important thing about summative research is that people can evaluate a project through the final outcome, so that they can take it as an experience to improve on the next project.

However, the final outcome is not always reflecting correctly the whole process.  For example it a student did very good job during his studying period. On the day of final exam for some reason, he couldn’t make it well. So does it he fails for all that semester? Personally I think that in order to have an accurate result, we should use both Formative and Summative Research. Each methods has their own pros and cons, so it can support each others to come out with the most accurate result.