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Learn Your Terms: The Differences between Assessment and Evaluation

Understand the Differences between Assessment and Evaluation?

Assessment involves learning, teaching, and the outcomes, while evaluation mostly focuses on the outcome. This means that the assessment is done to improve the process of learning.

Evaluation, on the other hand, determines the quality of the process. And this is achieved by grading students and using those grades to determine the quality of the course.

In most cases, both words are used interchangeably because of some similarities that they share. Those similarities include;

• Both words involve laying down criteria to observe an outcome or performance.
• Both processes involve collection of data and evidence
• Both require an individual to perform and another to collect data about the performance.
• Both processes conclude with a report from the findings that is inclusive of similarities and differences.

Although assessment and evaluation have a few similarities, they are used for different reasons. Assessments identify the level an individual has attained when it comes to performance, while evaluation determines the extent to which a specific academic goal has been achieved.

Read on to discover some of the major differences between the assessment and evaluation.

what are the key differences between assessment and evaluation

The major differences between assessment and evaluation are outlined in the key points below;

Assessment involves learning, teaching, and the outcomes, while evaluation mostly focuses on the outcome. This means that the assessment is done to improve the process of learning.

Evaluation, on the other hand, determines the quality of the process. And this is achieved by grading students and using those grades to determine the quality of the course.

The criteria used in the assessment are determined by a mutual understanding between the assessor and the student, whereas evaluation relies exclusively on the evaluator.

Assessment is diagnostic, meaning it aims at defining the general performance of the student and point out areas of improvement. Contrarily, evaluation is judgemental because it determines whether the standards established or goals have been achieved or not.

The standards of measurement used in the assessment are absolute, which seeks out to attain an ideal outcome. However, the measurement standard of evaluation is comparative, which determines if merit is either better or worse.

With assessment, there is feedback on students’ performance, weak areas are identified, and methods are devised to improve in the future. In contrast, the evaluation focuses on the overall grade in regards to performance.

Additionally, the feedback from an assessment is constructive, while the feedback from evaluation is meant to show a student’s shortcomings.

In regard to timing, evaluation is the final stage of an existing process; it regulates the quality of the process, whereas assessment is an on-going process used to determine the student's understanding of the particular subject—and is administered time after time.

In an assessment, the assessor and the student share a reflective relationship; this means that the criteria used are defined internally. On the contrary, in evaluation the evaluator and the student share a prescriptive relationship, meaning the standards are enforced externally.

Another difference is seen in the orientation of the two words; assessment is process-oriented, whereas evaluation is product-oriented.

With assessment, the process is individualized and does not involve any set of standards; on the other hand, evaluation is applied against set standards.

Lastly, while assessments involve both the student and teacher (because they influence a learner directly), evaluation is a tutor’s job. And most of the time, a tutor uses the results of an evaluation to analyse overall achievement.

Both Assessment and Evaluation Matter to Any Course

Assessment or evaluation? Is any approach more important than the other? The answer is NO because each strategy has its critical role.

The Role of Assessment

Assessment is a vital component to a curriculum because it offers constructive feedback. Learners and lecturers use the result to check if all the hard work they put in paid off or not.

Furthermore, this feedback helps to point out areas that need improvement for better future performance. After assessment, learners go back to the drawing board, identify their mistake and work on their areas of weaknesses.

Assessments can encourage shared learning and improve the student-instructor relationship. It is one of the rare moments when a teacher learns the extent or depth of their students’ understanding.

Since the student receives feedback, they value the need to respect their lecturer’s judgment because assessment results include corrections and guidance. In so doing, learners get more engaged in a in course and seeks to perform better.

Assessment is also useful tool particularly for instructors. It allows you to see whether your teaching strategies are effective or not.

Without assessment, it can be difficult to tell the competence of our teaching practices and curriculum in imparting knowledge in learners.

This process allows the student to communicate with their lecturers in regards to their experiences and impression of the syllabus, as well as the teaching and testing methods used.

Therefore, it gives a lecturer valuable insight on how the students handled the knowledge passed and the teaching methods to use.

The Role of Evaluation

Evaluation is a diagnostic and continuous process. This means that it can helps an evaluator track and identify problems. 

Once the issues have been identified, the teacher works to find out an appropriate solution to improve the learning environment for students.

Another vital need for evaluation is that it clarifies the objective of education. The main aim of education is to influence a learner’s behavior, and one of the ways to prove a change in behavior is through an evaluation.

Evaluation helps a teacher to classify his students by level of intellectual abilities and interest. In return, this classification helps him to offer proper guidance to each category

Through teacher-based evaluation, the administration can highlight slow teachers by using criteria such as unproductivity or low performance.

Once the incompetent teachers have been identified, you can create for replacement with more skilled tutors.

In conclusion

In this article, we have shown clearly that assessment and evaluation are two different concepts.

While evaluation is involved in making judgments, and is product-oriented, assessment seeks to correct, or rather improve, an individual’s performance and is process-oriented.

We’ve also seen how both processes play a vital role in analysing the performance of an individual.

Even though assessment and evaluation are both used in reviewing an individual’s performance, these two words are used in different contexts.

As we mentioned earlier, assessment is a tool used to provide constructive feedback with the intention of making improvements. Meanwhile, evaluation seeks to judge the ability of a student against a set of standards.