Chapter 3.

Formative Vs. Summative Assessment

A formative assessment assists the teacher in forming new lessons,  and assist the learning process by providing feedback to the learner, which show students' strengths and weaknesses. Teachers use this data to plan strong lessons or modify strategies that are not working, while students use the results as a sign of their progress. While a summative assessment comes at the end of a lesson, semester or year for a summary of what the student has learned.  It is used primarily to make decisions for grading or determine readiness for progression.

Informal vs. Formal Assessment

Informal assessments include observations, interviews, record reviews, and performance reviews that are less structured than formal assessments and may not be validated or tested for reliability. Informal assessment is most often used to provide formative feedback. While Formal assessments consist primarily of standardized tests or performance reviews that have been validated and tested using samples of the intended test groups. Also, this assessments  should be held to higher standards of reliability and validity than informal assessments.

Continuous vs. Final Assessment

Continuous assessment is most appropriate when student and/or instructor knowledge of progress or achievement is needed to determine the subsequent progression or sequence of activities. Continuous assessment provides both students and teachers with the information needed to improve teaching and learning in process. Also, involves increased effort for both teacher and student.  While Final assessment is that which takes place only at the end of a learning activity, it is used for summative decision-making and cannot be used for formative purposes.

Process vs. Product Assessment

Process is most useful when a student is learning a new skill and for providing formative feedback to assist in improving performance.  They can provide diagnostic information on how well the students use learning strategies that leads to independent learning because it requires them to reflect on their learning and set goals to improve it. While product is appropriate for documenting proficiency or competency in a given skill for summative purposes. In general, product assessments are easier to create than product assessments, requiring only a specification of the attributes of the final product.

 Divergent vs. Convergent Assessment

Divergent assessments are those for which a range of answers or solutions might be considered correct and tend to be more authentic and most appropriate in evaluating higher cognitive skills but are often time consuming to evaluate and the resulting judgments often exhibit poor reliability. While convergent assessment has only one correct response, that's why this kind of assessments are easier to evaluate or score than divergent assessments.