Formative and summative evaluation in Education

Formative and summative evaluation in Education - its importance and difference

1. Formative and Summative Evaluation Suresh Babu G Assistant Profosser CTE CPAS Paippad , Kottayam

2. Michael S eriven while discussing the role of evaluation in 1967, classified evaluation in two categories of formative and summative evaluation.

3. Formative Evaluation When any education plan is evaluated during its development stage and corrected accordingly, then this evaluation is known as formative evaluation. ie , evaluation during formal stage. It evaluate to increase quality, effectiveness, desirability and utility. The aims of formative evaluation is to point out shortcoming of the plan for correction to the person responsible for it. Class test

4. Definition : Evaluation taken at varying interval throughout a course to provide information and feedback that will help improve the quality of student learning and the quality of the course itself. Goal : To monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. Example : Asking students to submit 1 or 2 sentences identifying the main point of a lecture

5. Characteristics of Formative Evaluation It relatively focuses on molecular analysis. It is cause seeking. It is interested in the broader experiences of the programme users. It’s design is exploratory and flexible. It tends to ignore the local effects of a particular programme It seeks to identify influential variables. It requires analysis of instructional material for mapping the hierarchical structure of the learning tasks and actual teaching of the course for a certain period.

6. Summative Evaluation A summative evaluation (sometimes referred to as external) is a method of judging the worth of a program activities (summation) . The focus is on the outcome or the final product.

7. Definition Evaluation taken by students at the end of a unit or semester to demonstrate the ‘sum’ of what they have and have not learned. Goal To evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. Example : Assigning marks or a grade to a final exam.

8. Characteristics of Summative Evaluation It tends to the use of well-defined evaluation designs. It focuses on analysis. It provides descriptive analysis. It trends to stress local effects. It is unobtrusive and no reactive as far as possible. It is concerned with broad range of issues. It’s instruments are reliable and valid.

9. Difference between Formative and Summative Evaluation Characteristics Formative Summative Purpose To monitor projects of students by feedback To check final status of students Content focus Detailed narrow scope General broad scope Methods Daily assignments observation Final test projects Frequency Daily Weekly, quarterly etc. Role To improve learning allows teachers to make decisions and monitor their instructions based on students’ performance To predict & judge students’ performance, give grades and determine if the content being taught was retained Relation to instruction   Occurs during instruction Occurs after instruction