4 Types of Evaluation used in Education

The different types of evaluation are: placement, formative, diagnostic and summative evaluations.

Placement Evaluation

This is a type of evaluation carried out in order to fix the students in the appropriate group or class. In some schools for instance, students are assigned to classes according to their subject combinations, such as science, Technical, arts, Commercial etc. before this is done an examination will be carried out. This is in form of pretest or aptitude test. It can also be a type of evaluation made by the teacher to find out the entry behaviour of his students before he starts teaching. This may help the teacher to adjust his lesson plan. Tests like readiness tests, ability tests, aptitude tests and achievement tests can be used.

Formative Evaluation

This is a type of evaluation designed to help both the student and teacher to pinpoint areas where the student has failed to learn so that this failure may be rectified. It provides a feedback to the teacher and the student and thus estimating teaching success e.g. weekly tests, terminal examinations etc.

Diagnostic Evaluation

This type of evaluation is carried out most of the time as a follow up evaluation to formative evaluation. As a teacher, you have used formative evaluation to identify some weaknesses in your students. You have also applied some corrective measures which have not showed success. What you will now do is to design a type of diagnostic test, which is applied during instruction to find out the underlying cause of students persistent learning difficulties. These diagnostic tests can be in the form of achievement tests, performance test, self-rating, interviews ,observations, etc.

Summative evaluation

This is the type of evaluation carried out at the end of the course of instruction to determine the extent to which the objectives have been achieved. It is called a summarizing evaluation because it looks at the entire course of instruction or programme and can pass judgment on both the teacher and students, the curriculum and the entire system. It is used for certification. Think of the educational certificates you have acquired from examination bodies such as WAEC, NECO, etc. These were awarded to you after you had gone through some types of examination. This is an example of summative evaluation.

Please visit and subscribe to our YouTube Channel: Decroly Education Centre (youtube.com) or Centre for Elites – YouTube