For classroom feedback and evaluation, teachers need certain methods to carry out. In a class, how much knowledge the students have mastered is identified by evaluation. Passing the classroom assessment means that students can enter the next semester, but not vice versa. At the same time, evaluation is an important for teachers to understand the progress of students and the effects of their own courses. For the type of evaluation, people divide it into two categories: formative and summative.
“Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course (FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT, 2014).” Formative assessment is a step-by-step approach. It does not rely on a final exam or speech. In contrast, Formative assessment requires a summary of every day in class or a small test in class. This way of learning can better let students understand their shortcomings every day and provide them with a clear direction for improvement.
”Summative assessments are used to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the conclusion of a defined instructional period—typically at the end of a project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year (SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS, 2013) “Summative assessment is more at the end of a semester, it is used to test students’ overall control of the course. Generally speaking, this test will have a final score, and this score will be permanently loaded into your file. But this kind of test does not help much in teaching. On the contrary, it only reflects the final results of students, which does not help them understand a certain piece of knowledge. The most typical example is the SAT test in the United States.
References
Formative assessment definition. The Glossary of Education Reform. (2014, April 29). Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://www.edglossary.org/formative-assessment/.
Summative assessment definition. The Glossary of Education Reform. (2013, August 29). Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://www.edglossary.org/summative-assessment/.
Heqi, your explanation of summative assessment and formative assessment is really comprehensive. Not only did you use the material to give definitions, but you also evaluated and exemplified both assessment types, which made your Blog better. I just want to know, which do you think is better for teaching students, formative assessment or summative assessment?