What Is the Difference Between Formative Evaluations and Summative Evaluations

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The Answer is Formative evaluations and summative evaluations are two distinct types of assessment used in educational settings to measure student learning, but they serve different purposes and are conducted at different times during the learning process.

Formative Evaluations:
- Purpose: The primary goal of formative evaluations is to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve teaching and by students to improve their learning.
- Timing: These evaluations are conducted during the learning process, often multiple times throughout a course or unit of study.
- Characteristics: Formative assessments are usually low stakes, meaning they have little or no impact on a student's final grade. They are more informal and may include activities such as quizzes, drafts, homework assignments, in-class discussions, or peer reviews.
- Feedback: The feedback from formative evaluations is immediate and constructive, aimed at helping students identify their strengths and weaknesses and guiding them on how to improve.
- Examples: Examples of formative evaluations include classroom polls, one-minute papers, concept maps, and think-pair-share activities.

Summative Evaluations:
- Purpose: Summative evaluations are designed to evaluate student learning at the conclusion of an instructional period by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.
- Timing: These evaluations take place at the end of a course, semester, or after a specific unit or project is completed.
- Characteristics: Summative assessments are high stakes, which means they often have a significant impact on the student's final grade or outcome. They are more formal and structured than formative assessments.
- Feedback: While feedback can be provided after summative evaluations, it is typically summative in nature, summarizing the student's performance rather than providing detailed insights for improvement.
- Examples: Examples of summative evaluations include final exams, standardized tests, term papers, final projects, and end-of-unit tests.

In summary, formative evaluations are about the process of learning and are used to improve instruction and student learning as it happens, while summative evaluations are about the product of learning and are used to measure and certify the level of learning that has occurred by the end of an instructional period. Both types of evaluations are important in the educational process, serving complementary roles in assessing and enhancing student learning.

What Is the Difference Between Formative Evaluations and Summative Evaluations

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