Effective Educational Evaluation: Methods and Implementation
Definition of Evaluation
Evaluation is the final principle that concludes the instructional teaching-learning process. It compares the educational objectives proposed for school learning outcomes achieved in the teaching-learning process.
It is a process, not a one-time act. It must involve all members of the educational community (parents, teachers, and students).
The purpose of assessment is not just forecasting but also the future improvement of the teaching-learning process.
Functions of Evaluation
It is unquestionable that we need to assess all that is noted in the draft School Curriculum and classroom:
Among the functions evaluation performs, we have the following:
- a) Allow identification of gaps in learning
- b) Provide an understanding of what the student has learned
- c) Determine which set objectives have been met or not
- d) Provide information about the causes of failure to achieve learning objectives
- e) Make decisions about deviations in the achievement of objectives
- f) Avoid falling into the same errors in the future
- g) Encourage the proper grouping of students
- h) Allow initial knowledge of students’ abilities
- i) Assign objective scores
- j) Assign each student a task
- k) Serve as a tool for research and reflection
Assessment techniques may vary, but in no case should they penalize. Instead, they should provide a means of detecting and overcoming difficulties in the teaching and learning process.
Initial Assessment
Initial assessment is performed before starting the educational activity at the beginning of the course to adapt curriculum projects to actual needs.
This is a series of tests to determine the starting point for students, predict results, and realistically select the most appropriate objectives students must achieve by the end of the course. It highlights two types of initial diagnosis:
- Cognitive Diagnosis: Identify and mature the students’ profiles, pointing out highlighted deficiencies.
- Diagnostic Skills: Understand the real possibilities for students to acquire new learning. It is based essentially on the measure of intelligence (IQ).
From these two diagnoses, predicting yields usually has a good possibility of success. Therefore, make the necessary corrections in the teaching program to enable the ultimate success of all students (taking into account the individual effort each one must make to access the required standards.)
Continuous Assessment or Training
Once the student has been initially evaluated and placed at the appropriate level, there should be a forecast of expected results. Thus, the teacher begins a continuous evaluative study, traditionally called “continuous assessment.”
This type of evaluation is based on scheduling a series of activities to achieve the previously established objectives.
To implement continuous evaluation in an educational teaching-learning process, it is necessary to identify patterns or units of observation. This means aspects of student behavior that must be observed to see if they vary from previous observation situations, which will differ depending on the area of knowledge.
In a continuous assessment or training process, student activities should be monitored and evaluated continuously. The class becomes an activity aimed at achieving goals that are made explicit in the activity itself. If we apply observation criteria, assessment is continuous with the same activity. When assigning a grade, the teacher will have the result of a control test and observations of student progress throughout the entire procurement process. Thus, learning, assessment, and recovery are three manifestations of the same reality.
Final Training, Summative, or Product Assessment
With this model, we know the results of a long learning process in the cognitive aspect and performance. It mainly concerns the control of learning outcomes, i.e., it only monitors the achievement of objectives.
It carries the danger of not being able to make changes in the teaching-learning process. Levels are taken as common to all students, talking of “approved” or “fail” as whether or not they exceed the required minimum height.
To determine if this type of assessment is good or not, we should note the circumstances surrounding the evaluator. In a society based on competitiveness, total evaluation, done correctly, can be the most appropriate since its sole purpose is to classify subjects objectively, regardless of the cause or situations that have caused the results. But in a school system where the guidance of learning is important, the final evaluation system is the least recommended because it does not provide sufficient information to redirect the process.
Self-Assessment and Hetero-Assessment, Individual and Group
Hetero-assessment is the school performance appraisal by individuals outside the student. It has been the most accepted method since the school was established as an institution. It supports two modes:
- Individual: When the teacher evaluates each student one by one.
- Collective (Group): When outcome measurement instruments are applied to the whole group at once.
More novel is the mode of self-evaluation, which consists of the performance appraisal obtained by the students themselves. It may also be individual or group:
- Individual: Occurs when the student evaluates their work independently.
- Group: Occurs when the teacher provides valid answers for a financial year to the entire group simultaneously so that students can self-correct.
Given that the students’ judgment can be subjective, teacher orientation is necessary to get a more accurate valuation.
The Grading Scale
In grading scales, the observer records the presence or absence of the observed trait and gives value judgments on it using a sliding scale, appreciating the intensity of the trait’s presence.
The rules for implementation would be:
- Features to look for should be unambiguous so that all teachers understand the same after its statement.
- The features to observe should be clearly observable in school life.
- The scale used should be agreed upon between the professors of the faculty of the center.