The terms “Assessment” and “Evaluation” have been used interchangeably in some literature, but the basic distinction is that “evaluation” is used to provide a grade or score, and “assessment” is used as a measure of progress. Both are important in the learning environment.

My Learning Reflection on Assessment and Evaluation

The fundamental goal of education is learning, and learning is accomplished by teaching. In the teaching and learning process, the primary component is “Assessment.” An assessment identifies an individual’s performance level through different tasks, tests, tasks, quizzes, presentations, etc. The assessment’s primary goal is to verify whether learners have learned what they are supposed to learn. An Assessment is defined as “a process of collecting information about the learner through systematic procedures such as feedback, tests, group discussions, quizzes, and many more aspects to improve students learning.” It involves learner achievement by using all kinds of teaching strategies and techniques to judge learning. It is used as the teacher’s base to collect information about the student to figure out the learner’s progress.

Need and Importance of Assessment

Assessment plays a very crucial role in students’ and teacher’s life.

It is used for various purposes:

Assessment for learning: it helps teachers to gain insight knowledge about the students learning.
Assessment as learning: it develops awareness among students how they learn and use that awareness for future learning tasks.
Assessment of learning: it informs students, parents, and teachers to support continued success.

These purposes, as mentioned above, are required to improve student’s learning.

In my view, If a student is not scoring good grades on the tests or quizzes, I will see the previous records of the student so that I have knowledge about his learning abilities and responding nature, which helps me as an instructor to focus on the improvement.

A friendly and interactive environment in the class can also help the learners freely discuss their problems about the course they are facing.

While assessing students, the teacher’s responsibility is to be fair among all of the students. No biased decision should be taken for the students by the teacher that are on the favourite list.

Assessment enables instructors to examine the metrics of measurement for students understanding of and proficiency in the course learning objectives. It provides an evident document of students’ progress that validates the learning in the classroom.

There are two types of Assessments that we need to know:

Formative Assessment
Summative Assessment

Formative assessment involves the measurement of student learning over time. In this type of assessment, students receive feedbacks that identifies strengths, weaknesses which helps in future assignments.

Summative assessment is used to conduct at the end of the course of study. The primary purpose of this assessment is to provide an overall knowledge of the course to the student. Example: final exam paper.

Personal Experience of assessment as a school student

When I was a secondary school student, teachers split course syllabus materials into different chapters. Initially, chapter readings were there, and then teachers conduct formative assessments to evaluate our understanding among the chapters.

The teacher, throughout the course, conducted approximately four formative assessments. At the end of the term, one final exam was there, which sums up the course’s overall knowledge.

In this way, my teacher assesses students’ learning by combining the formative and summative assessment types. Out of a hundred, 40% was formative, and 50% was summative rest, 10% was based on the student’s behaviour in the class, including attendance and assignment submission.

Many secondary schools in India still follow this technique of assessment.

Personal Experience of assessment as a university student

In my graduation degree, learning and teaching were challenging in my university. As a student, my entire focus was on grades and the resulting outcomes in university. Teachers provide the handwritten notes and suggested books to the students, and in those notes and books, the final exams will be covered.

Formative assessments were also there in the universities, but the percentage was deficient compared to summative assessments. Teachers also provide practical training in the labs. The labs, presentations and vivas were conducted to assess the students learning. Most of the students got passing grades as they only focus on clearing exams rather than learning. Being a technical student, I faced problems such as assignment deadlines, presentation preparation, lab works and report making throughout the course. Overall, assessments in universities were based on grades in the final exams.

Future Perceptive

By using the combination of Formative and summative assessment can be used to assess students learning. As an instructor, I ensure the essential purpose of assessing that is learning. While assessing, I keep in mind that my decisions will be fair and responsible among the learners. I will provide individual feedback to the students so that they can improve their mistakes. I will also motivate the learners, so they do not feel they lack in the course.

Moreover, creating a friendly and interactive environment in the class will help them engage freely to discuss their thoughts. Student’s behaviour among each other also is assessed by the teachers. The proper knowledge of content can help students to understand better, and they will acquire good grades.

Conclusion

This reflection paper focused on assessments, their importance, their types, value, and personal experiences. For the most part, I shared my thoughts about the assessments by using my personal experiences. As I discussed throughout this paper, assessment is a core and vital component of the learning-teaching process. Hence, it should be used wisely to evaluate students learning progress.