Main Types of Assessment in Education and their Purposes

Main Types of Assessment in Education and their Purposes

Assessment refers to the process of collecting information that reflects the performance of a student, school, classroom, or an academic system based on a set of standards, learning criteria, or curricula.

Purposes of assessment in education

The main purposes of assessment in education are as follows: 

1. It aims to enable the instructors to determine how much the learners have understood what the teacher has taught in the class and how much they can apply the knowledge of what has been taught in the class as well.

2. Another aim is that the standardized tests involved in the process of measurement assessment enables the students to make better use of the data available in the daily classroom.

3. The basic purpose of measurement assessment is to determine the needs of all the learners.

4. Assessment also aims to enable educators to measure the skills, knowledge, beliefs, and attitude of the learners.

5. Assessment also aims to help the teachers to determine the learning progress of the students. Without measuring and evaluating their performance, teachers will not be able to determine how much the students have learned.

Types of assessment in education

The main types of assessment in education are as follows:

Diagnostic Assessment

It is a type of pre-assessment which allows teachers to assess the strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, and skills of the learners before starting the teaching learning process. 

Prognostic Assessment

Prognostic assessment refers to the assessment that includes the prediction of a learner’s future career through the means of estimation. 

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is the type of evaluation which is done during the teaching process. Its main aim is to offer continuous feedback to the student as well as the teacher. This enables one to make modifications in the instructional process if there are any requirements. It takes into account those units of the curriculum which are smaller and independent and through tests, the learners’ performance is evaluated. Formative assessment is effective for making changes and timely corrections among the learners and teaching methodology. 

Summative Assessment

Summative assessment refers to the evaluation which is conducted towards the end of the academic session. It takes into account the achievements of the outcomes and the overall personality development of the learner at the academic session’s end. It takes a broad aspect of learning into account. 

Quantitative Assessment

Quantitative assessment refers to the use of scientific measurements and tools and includes the results which can be measured and counted. Few techniques and tools involved in quantitative evaluation are oral, written, and performance tests. 

Qualitative Evaluation

Qualitative assessment refers to an observation that is made using all the five senses and includes value judgment. 

Assessment is a quantitative measurement of instructional outcomes. It makes a quantitative determination of an individual’s performance.

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