Evaluation in Education

Study Notes

Evaluation is defined as the process of making a value judgment about the worth of a student's product or performance. (Nitiko, 2001)
It's a systematic determination of a subject's merit, worth, and significance using criteria governed by a set of standards.
Evaluation assists organizations, programs, projects, or interventions in assessing aims, concepts, proposals, or alternatives.
It is used to determine the degree of achievement or value in regard to plans and the results of any action.

There are three main types of evaluation:
- Formative Evaluation
- Summative Evaluation
- Diagnostic Evaluation

Formative evaluation is about judging the quality or worth of instructional materials, procedures, curricula, or educational programs.
It's used to monitor student learning progress during or after instruction.
It's usually administered during the instructional process to provide feedback to students and teachers.
Formative evaluation aims to provide immediate feedback to students and teachers, helping identify learning errors needing correction.
Formative evaluation helps teachers modify instruction.

Summative evaluation examines the quality of instructional materials, procedures, curricula, and educational programs.
It summarizes strengths and weaknesses of a program, product, or concept and determines the extent to which instructional objectives have been met.
It's given at the end of a course or unit; used to evaluate student achievement.

Diagnostic evaluation is conducted before instruction.
It's used to identify students' strengths and weaknesses regarding topics to be discussed.
It assesses students' prior knowledge of a specific topic or lesson.
It detects learning problems and helps formulate remedial action plans.
It determines the level of competence amongst students.

Two approaches exist:
- Norm-referenced evaluation
- Criterion-referenced evaluation

Compares a student's performance to the performance of others.
Measures how well a student performs on a defined set of tasks in relation to other students who took the same test.

Measures a student's mastery of instructional objectives.
Assesses the student's performance against predetermined criteria without comparing to other students.
It measures achievement of objectives rather than comparing one student to another.
It answers the question of what a learner can and cannot do, based on a specific learning program.

Aims to evaluate what a person can or will do, not just what they know.
Performance assessment utilizes criteria to evaluate how well a student has accomplished a learning target.
Performance assessments usually require production to demonstrate knowledge and application of skills. It uses extended written/spoken material, group activities, or creation of products.
There are three main types of performance assessment;
- Structured, on-demand task.
- Naturally occurring task.
- Long-term projects.

Structured, on-demand task: Teacher controls the assessment situation, and tasks are defined with clear instructions.
Naturally occurring task: Performance is assessed in real-life situations. Situations and tasks usually arise spontaneously for students to perform.
Long-term projects: Usually involve creativity, originality, and communication skills and involve more students to work together to create a high-quality product.

Identify the purpose of assessment.
Identify and list knowledge, attitudes, and skills that will require the demonstration of higher-order behaviours.
Design the performance tasks.
Develop performance assessment criteria.