I have the loveliest
experiences which prompted my mind to write this article. It goes back to
almost 28 months when I used the acronym CCA in place of CCE in a paper meant
for myself and got objected by a teacher trainer. The reaction was like this –
“It should be CCE but may be by mistake you wrote CCA.”
I said, “No,
it’s CCA, only CCA not CCE..he.he.”
She said, “Then
what is difference between CCE and CCA; I mean ‘Evaluation’ and ‘Assessment’?
I replied “What
your child’s teacher is doing is CCE and what you are doing for your child is
CCA.”
It sounds so
cheap but it is true to me and may be you as well. This was the first bump.
Later on may be
after six months, while discussing on students’ learning assessment somewhere
in an informal gathering, once again I mentioned about CCA and once again I
encountered with lot of comments as it was the group of academic
administrators, teacher trainers and teachers. It was really a vehement
objection on the difference of meaning of ‘Evaluation’ and ‘Assessment’. They
said, “Evaluation and assessment is same – just synonym.” I am thankful that they spared me when I
shared an example. The example was like this:
“Suppose I invited you for a dinner. I know you are
fond of chicken curry. I prepared the same with my utmost cooking skills before
your arrival. But I got it is over salted when I tasted it. What I did is I
added little sugar and a cup of water and cooked for a while. After dinner you
said, ‘It was the tastiest chicken curry I ever had…blah..blah.’
Here what I did is ‘Assessment’ and what you did is
‘Evaluation.’”
My reader may think
above discussions as fictitious and I accept it is written fictitiously but the
persons who argued adamantly on this topic with me have to be happy that I am
thankful to them.
Anyway, it is
true that this has really triggered me seriously and my first target was
dictionary meaning.
First I
consulted some of the dictionaries which are with me that can be referred as:
ü OXFORD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
Assessment: noun 1 [Countable]
an opinion or a judgment about somebody/something that has been thought about
very carefully SYN – EVALUATION: a detailed assessment of the risk involved. ►What
is your assessment of the situation? 2 [Uncountable] the act of
judging or forming an opinion about somebody/something; written and oral exams
and other forms of assessment ► Objective assessment of the severity of the
problem was difficult. – see also CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT 3
[Countable] an amount that has been calculated and that must be paid: a tax
assessment.
[CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT – noun. BrE. A system of giving a
student a final mark/grade based on work done during a course of study rather
than on one exam]
Evaluate: to form an evaluation of the amount, value or
quality of something after thinking about it carefully SYN ASSESS: [verb + noun
phrase] Our research attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of the different
drugs. [verb + wh clause] We need to evaluate how well the policy is
working.
ü The Concise Oxford Dictionary
Assess: 1 a estimate the size or
quality of. b estimate the value of (a property) for taxation, etc. 2
a fix the amount of and impose it on a person or community, etc. b
fine or tax in or at a specific amount.
[CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT – noun. Britain. the evaluation of a
pupil’s progress throughout a course of study, as well as or instead of by
examination]
Evaluate: 1 assess, appraise. 2
a find or state the number or amount of. b find a numerical
expression for.
ü
आधारभूत प्राविधिक शब्दावली
Assessment: कर निर्धारण, मूल्यांकन
Evaluation: मूल्यांकन
ü
अंग्रेजी नेपाली साझा संक्षिप्त शब्दकोश
Assessment: कर निर्धारण, मूल्य
निर्धारण, लेखा-जोखा
Evaluation: मूल्यांकन, परख, लेखा-जोखा
ü
Oxford Dictionary & Thesaurus III
Assessment: ■ 1. appraise, assay
(metal), calculate, compute, consider, determine, estimate, evaluate, fix,
gauge, judge, reckon, review, colloquial size up, value, weigh up, work
out; 2 appraise, evaluate, price, value.
Evaluation: ■ 1 appraise, assess, estimate, judge,
value, colloquial weigh up 2 calculate value of, compute, work out.
The dictionary meanings of the words ‘assess’
and ‘evaluate’ or ‘assessment’ and ‘evaluation’ are same and being used as
synonym while speaking generally. Both the words denote the judgment or opinion
about the value or quality of something or somebody as per OXFORD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. However, one of the meanings of ‘evaluate’
in The Concise Oxford Dictionary is ‘find a numerical expression for’ which means the evaluation is a
numerical representation of quality or value of something or somebody. In the
same way, one of the meanings
of ‘assessment’ stated in OXFORD Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary is ‘written and oral exams’ which we
normally call as ‘evaluation’. The dictionaries
also have the same meanings – evaluation (valuation), calculation, accounting,
appraisal, etc.
It is interesting to note here that there is a separate meaning for
two-word phrase ‘Continuous Assessment’ under letter ‘C’ in The Concise Oxford Dictionary which
means ‘the evaluation of a pupil’s progress throughout a course of study, as
well as or instead of by examination’. Now let’s see the phrase ‘instead of by examination’ which clearly
denotes ‘without conducting examination’. This means that Continuous
Assessment is different than Assessment and Evaluation as per
the Dictionary and Continuous Assessment is not as same as Continuous
Evaluation while evaluating or assessing pupil’s progress of learning. As such, the meanings of
Assessment and Evaluation differ in the context of teaching-learning and
classroom processes. I mean the meanings of these two words would be different
when you use these words as an educator.
My another target was the review of
literatures pertaining to these words. Everyone knows
that we hardly find the theoretical discourse especially on these terminologies
in the books prescribed for B.Ed, M.Ed. and MA (Education) Course. I have small
library which has few books on the topic being discussed here. As such, the
major chunk of literature/materials used for review in this part of article is
web-based.
To initiate the
discussion on Assessment and Evaluation, I would like to quote an excerpt from
the Introduction of ‘Source Book on Assessment for Classes I-V’[i]
prepared by the
National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), India, which I feel, has much relevance in understanding
the meanings these two words. The excerpt is like this:
‘Assessment
– For What? – In a primary school, 30 children in Class IV were given a
test on Environmental Studies, on water, a chapter in their textbooks. Varying
marks were obtained by the children with most scoring 6 out of 10. Two
children, Maithali and Raman scored 8 and 3 out of 10, respectively. When the
teacher read out the marks, the children laughed at Raman and made fun of him
because he had got low marks. After that day, Raman did not want to come to
school at all, and it was difficult for his parents to convince him to go to
school.
What do these
marks really tell the teacher, parents or others involved in Maithali’s or
Raman’s education? Does it tell anything about what and how both children have
learnt and what each of them is capable of doing? Does it tell the teacher how
to improve the teaching-learning processes for Maithali and Raman based on
their needs? Does it tell the two children, Maithali and Raman anything about
their own learning so that they can improve further? Do the marks scored by the
children provide a useful report or feedback on what either of the two children
know their progress or learning to their parents or community members?’
The excerpt
above makes us clear that what the teacher of Environmental Studies did is not
a Continuous Assessment as per the meaning given in The Concise
Oxford Dictionary. It is also clear that this type of tests/exams in teaching-learning
process is redundant and discourages the child or learner. In fact, taking this
type of test by a subject teacher to his own students taught by himself sounds irrelevant
because no one knows those children better than himself. This sort of activity
of teacher also reveals that the teacher has no predefined objectives of
teaching that chapter. [Normally, a teacher has two objectives of taking this type
of tests or exam of his students – one, to make the children
recapitulate (we can say ‘mug-up’ because this type of test/exam do not provide
chance for the children to use their learning in their real life situation)
what she has taught them in the class and two, how much the students had
learnt from her teaching. Earlier objective has the prominence because many of
the teachers use these tests/exams as a tool to improve learning among
children. Many of the educational workers are even in favour of detention (holding
back in the same class) of children if a child cannot perform well in these
exams. They have the notion that ‘repetition’ will improve child’s learning.]
Dr. Pritam Singh
(Former Professor and Head, Department of Measurement and Evaluation and
National Talent Search Unit, NCERT, New Delhi), in his book titled ‘Handbook of
Measurement and Evaluation’ writes about Assessment like this ‘It refers to
teachers’ estimate of a value against a certain standard. Therefore it is only
an estimate made about an attribute or aspect of development as in assessment
of co-scholastic aspects in contrast to the scores on an objective test. It is
an approximation and can be informal also.’ Regarding Evaluation, he has used the words
like ‘assessment’, ‘examination’, ‘appraisal’ and ‘testing’[ii]
indicating that both these words (‘assessment’, ‘examination’, ‘appraisal’ and
‘testing’) come within evaluation.
His views on
Assessment is not clear as it should be, however, the mention of ‘certain
standard’ indicates that the assessment needs certain objectives/milestones/goals/desired
outcomes before conducting it. Dr.
Bob Kizlik also opines
the same about assessment. He while writing on Assessment mentions ‘…assessment is most usefully connected to
some goal or objective for which the assessment is designed. A test or
assessment yields information relative to an objective or goal. In that sense,
we test or assess to determine whether or not an objective or goal has been
obtained.’
The view of Dr.
Bob Kizlik on assessment is clearer than Dr. Pritam Singh. His obvious mentions
of the connection of assessment with goal or objective has concluded that
before conducting assessment the assessor should have related set of goals or
objectives which are to be generated after assessment. Dr. Bob Kizlik summing
up his article on Measurement, Assessment, and Evaluation in
Education writes – ‘…we measure distance, we assess learning,
and we evaluate results in terms of some set of criteria.’
This statement of Dr. Bob clears that ‘assessment’ is usually
used in assessing learning but ‘evaluation’ is used to deduce the result or
label the quality of final product.
Let’s see another explanation on ‘assessment’ and ‘evaluation’ given by Dr.
Marie Baehr (Vice
President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, Coe College, United
States). She, writing on Distinctions between Assessment and Evaluation,
explains - ‘Assessment
provides feedback on knowledge, skills, attitudes, and work products for the
purpose of elevating future performances and learning outcomes. Evaluation
determines the level of quality of a performance or outcome and enables
decision-making based on the level of quality demonstrated.’ The version of Dr. Marie also agrees with the
explanation of Dr. Bob, however, Dr. Marie has added the purpose of assessment
while explaining this term. She further adds some more points to clear the
meaning of the word ‘assessment’ -‘Assessment is the term used to look at how the level of
quality of a performance or outcome could be improved in the future; it includes
strengths that should be sustained as well as high priority areas for
improvement.’
There is another interesting excerpt in regard to
the meanings of ‘assessment’ and ‘evaluation’ in the official site of ‘The National Academy for Academic Leadership –Leading Today
for Tomorrow, New Jersey’, which writes – ‘Assessment is a process of determining "what
is." Assessment provides faculty members, administrators, trustees, and
others with evidence, numerical or otherwise, from which they can develop
useful information about their students, institutions, programs, and courses
and also about themselves. This information can help them make effectual
decisions about student learning and development, professional effectiveness,
and program quality. Evaluation uses information based on the credible
evidence generated through assessment to make judgments of relative value: the
acceptability of the conditions described through assessment.’
Now let’s go through
the difference between Assessment and Evaluation[iii]
which are given below in the table:
|
ASSESSMENT
|
EVALUATION
|
|
Formative: Ongoing to improve learning
|
Summative: Final to gauge quality
|
|
Process-oriented: How learning is going
|
Product-oriented: What’s been learned
|
|
Reflective: Internally defined criteria/goals
|
Prescriptive: Externally imposed standards
|
|
Diagnostic: Identify areas for improvement
|
Judgmental: Arrive at an overall grade/score
|
|
Flexible: Adjust as problems are clarified
|
Fixed: To reward success, punish failure
|
|
Absolute: Strives for ideal outcomes
|
Comparative: Divide better from worse
|
|
Cooperative: Learn from each other
|
Competitive: Beat each other out
|
After this much of
discussions and reviews, we can at least conclude that there is inconsistency
in the use of these two terms and have no distinct meaning as perceived by the
sensitive users like me. This discussion also revealed that the statement of
Dr. Pritam Singh about ‘assessment’ saying ‘…..
It (assessment) is an approximation and can
be informal also’ has little contradiction with the
explanations of other academicians as they say ‘assessment’ determine
‘evidence’ rather than ‘approximation’ of information. ‘Assessment’ is the process of
determining the shortcomings in the on-going work, thereby conducting
improvement activity as determined by assessment so as to ensure the
pre-defined quality at the end of the work and ‘evaluation’ is a process of
determining the quality of a finished product as per the pre-set criteria. Assessment
is done to improve a performance or outcome and Evaluation is to determine
the quality of a performance or outcome and to make decisions based on the
quality.[iv]
The difference
between CCE and CCA appears so simple but it makes difference at activity level
as processes involved in conducting CCE and CCA are totally different. It is
not just alteration of ‘E’ (Evaluation) and ‘A’ (Assessment). Hence, it is high
time for the educational functionaries like educational administrators, teacher
trainers, school heads and teachers to be imperative about the meanings of
these two terms – Assessment and Evaluation. These two words are no more
synonyms on teaching-learning perspectives.
*********
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