Business Administration Students' Perceptions of Formative Assessment as an Instructional Tool
Business Administration Students' Perceptions of Formative Assessment as an Instructional Tool

Summary/Abstract: Background/purpose. Formative assessment supports competency development and self regulated learning in higher education, yet evidence on business administration students’ perceptions (especially in Latin American contexts) remains limited. This study examined perceptions of formative assessment to identify improvement areas and inform pedagogy in business administration programs. Materials/methods. A cross-sectional, descriptive–correlational survey was administered to 112 fourth-, sixth-, and seventh-semester business administration students at a university in Ecuador. An adapted Students' Perceptions of Formative Assessments (SPFA) instrument assessed five conceptual dimensions: congruence, authenticity, consultation, transparency, and accommodation. Operationally, Part A (discipline-specific knowledge) consisted of five subscales, while Part B (self-directed learning skills) combined transparency and accommodation, resulting in four subscales. Analyses included descriptive statistics, Spearman correlations among subscales, Pearson correlations with age, and independent-samples t tests by gender. Results. Students reported moderately positive perceptions across all dimensions (M = 3.64–3.74, 1–5 scale). For discipline-specific knowledge, congruence was highest; for self-directed learning, authenticity was highest, while consultation was lowest across parts. Intercorrelations among dimensions were strong and significant (rs = .709–.947), indicating a holistic perception of formative assessment. Neither age nor gender was significantly associated with perceptions. Internal consistency was excellent across subscales (α = .973–.989) Conclusion. Students value formative assessment but identify opportunities to strengthen authenticity and consultation. Recommendations include embedding authentic, professionally relevant tasks, increasing student participation in co-constructing and clarifying evaluative criteria, and reinforcing alignment among outcomes, activities, feedback, and assessment practices.

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