In the wake of declining student performance and interest in science education, efforts to improve the quality of science teaching have intensified, including physics education. A recurring proposal to improve physics teaching is the use of formative assessment. Policy reforms tend to view the implementation of formative assessment as easy, but studies indicate that integrating these strategies into teachers’ practices can be challenging.  

Using a phenomenological approach and hermeneutic reflections, the present study explores the opportunities and challenges that teachers’ and students’ experience when implementing formative assessments in the physics classroom. For example, teachers may encounter resistance from their students and colleagues with different expectations of physics teaching, limiting teachers’ opportunities to ‘break free’ from established traditions. However, the study also highlights opportunities for physics teachers to evolve by taking risks and embracing formative assessment as an overarching learning assessment approach.  

Furthermore, the present study confirms the results of previous research indicating that students may see assessment rubrics in a positive light as their use can clarify teachers’ expectations and reduce uncertainty in this regard. However, the results of the present study also show that students may approach rubrics only as mechanical and strategic tools to obtain their desired grades, which risks conveying the message to students that physics knowledge is quantitative in nature. The students’ experiences also demonstrated that the use of rubrics could cause stress and anxiety, limiting the formative potential of rubrics. 

The results of the study are discussed in relation to the support that teachers and students need in implementing formative assessment and rubric use, and they have implications for teachers’ assessment literacy, including their ability to implement formative assessments in relation to different purposes of physics teaching. One conclusion is that teachers’ and students’ lived experiences of formative assessment and rubric use need to be understood in relation to the wider context of their lifeworlds, which is marked by an increased focus on performance and results. This is crucial so that teachers and students would not be portrayed as the problems when investments in formative assessment do not meet expectations.