Educational Assessment: Types, Principles, and Instruments

Posted on Aug 20, 2024 in Physical Education

Evaluation

Definition: The process of delineating, obtaining, and providing useful information to judge alternatives and make decisions.

Evaluation is a continuous and permanent process. It involves the following:

Outline: Plan the process of gathering the necessary information.
Information: Utilize tools such as checklists, parent interviews, rating scales, etc.
Useful Information: Ensure the collected data aligns with the evaluation goals.
Judgement Value: Interpret the acquired data.
Decision: Determine if the child has learned or if learning needs reinforcement.

Evaluation was initially a trial conducted by experts.

Pros: Easy to qualify results, no sophisticated instruments required.
Cons: Subjective, lacks positive proof, educator’s varying difficulty levels create doubts about the grading criteria, judges only represent a part of the teacher evaluation.

Assigning numbers to quantify a learner’s possession of a particular characteristic.

Advantages: Extracts data for reliable insights, handles large datasets.
Disadvantages: Overly scientific and mathematical, not everything can be measured scientifically.

Comparing achieved results with objectives.

Advantages: Optimizes the teaching-learning process, enhances learning quantity.
Disadvantages: Terminal activity, limiting in scope.

The process of outlining, obtaining, and providing useful information to assess alternatives and make decisions.

Objectivity: Data should be free from the applier’s biases, prejudices, emotions, or feelings.
Reliability: Consistent results under the same conditions with the same instrument.
Validity: Free from systematic errors.
Standardization: Possesses proven validity, reliability, and objectivity.

Integral: Encompasses all aspects (scheduling, planning, work, food, etc.). Example: Healthy living.
Continuous: Accompanies the teaching-learning process. Example: Mathematical or logical language development.
Collaborative: Involves the entire school community. Example: Classroom meetings.
Quantitative Description: Focuses on quantifiable aspects like the number of apprenticeships or available resources. Example: Walking progress.
Accumulative: Measures the impact of activities against predetermined targets at the project’s end. Example: End-of-year portfolio.

Psychometric Evaluation: Compares a student’s results to others, classifying them as regular, good, or bad. Uses instruments of medium difficulty with a high number of questions. Advantages: Less rigid approval criteria, useful for selection processes. Disadvantages: Difficult to detect missing elements.
Criterial Evaluation: Compares a student’s results to predetermined criteria. Almost all students can achieve the objectives. Provides continuous feedback. Uses instruments with a low number of items. Advantages: Useful in areas of growing complexity, detects knowledge gaps. Disadvantages: May demand a very high level.
Ideographic Evaluation: Focuses on the individual student’s skills. Appreciates student effort. Proposes a combination of criterial and ideographic evaluation.

Diagnostic Evaluation: Determines prior knowledge before a new learning phase. Guides teaching strategies and identifies strengths and weaknesses.
Formative Evaluation: Detects obstacles, identifies their causes, and implements corrective mechanisms. Evaluates classroom work quality, planning, methodology, and leadership. Ensures objectives are met and allows for adjustments.
Summative Evaluation: Checks the degree of compliance with educational goals at the end of a learning period. Leads to accreditation and informs future learning decisions.

Self-Evaluation: Students assess their own actions. Encourages reflection and self-awareness.
Co-Evaluation: Students assess each other’s work. Promotes collaboration and peer learning.
Hetero-Evaluation: Evaluation by one person on another’s work or performance. Can be complex and subjective.