Imparting Knowledge through the Use of Formative and Summative Assessment

Day schools, as we all know, are educational institutes that are invested and integral in having a schedule or routine for classes and students are to come and attend these classes and are required to head back home after a certain hour. These institutes are in complete contrast to boarding schools, they are open for instruction on weekdays only and usually during daytime hours. Day schools have their own advantages where the students can go back home to their parents, punctuality is endured in the minds of the children when they have to prepare themselves every morning and head to school when it comes to the expenses; day schools’ fees do not overburden the families and are quite reasonable and fair. However, there might arise some cons of day schools regarding their teaching and learning methodologies but rest assured, some institutions do implement the right facilities that help the students indefinitely. 

In this article, we will be discussing the efficiency of a ‘vibrant’ school which implements the right set of assessments that is known to have provided all the necessary helping hand in bringing about the best in students. 

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Formative Assessment and Summative Assessment

• Formative Assessment: This term refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Basically, formative assessment helps teachers identify concepts that students are struggling with, and learning standards that students have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made. When teachers can pinpoint a student’s weakness in his/her learning methodology, they can finally make the necessary adjustment and make use of another technique so that the student can understand topics clearly. 
• Summative Assessment: Summative learning or assessment of learning is used to evaluate a student’s learning, skill acquisition and academic achievement at the conclusion of an instructional period. In other words, summative assessments are evaluations based on tests, assignments or projects to check whether the student has learned or understood the concept that was taught to him/her. This kind of assessment is implemented in most schools in numerous districts and is recorded as scores or grades. ‘Exams’ serve as the main factor of this assessment and it is only through exams at the end of an academic period that determines whether a student has achieved letter marks or marks that are indicative of more improvement. 

Blending the Usage of Formative Assessment (FA) and Summative Assessment (SA) 

As mentioned above, formative assessment has its own benefits and so does summative assessment, Happy English School uses both of these assessments to assess the learning of the children at regular intervals. This way, the school conducts formative assessments continuously on ongoing topics so that they can make use of essential tools to assess the child and at the same time give feedback to the children for improvement. And serving the main definition of summative assessment, they are conducted at the end of the term to assess the learning of a child, and how much they’ve learned during the whole academic period.

The usage of both these assessments by the school provides aid to the child indefinitely as formative assessments help the teachers understand the problems of the child’s learning response and offer a better learning technique which helps the child and when a child understands concepts clearly, having their summative assessments at the end of their academic period can help the child perform better and achieve letter marks. The school understands the benefits that these assessments have with one another which makes the curriculum of learning all the better. 

Why Implement Formative Assessment and Summative Assessment?

Assessments are an integral part of the learning process and making use of these two main assessments effectively is highly important. 

Formative Assessment (FA) strategies improve teaching and learning simultaneously, teachers can help students grow by encouraging them to self-assess their own skills and knowledge retention, and by giving feedback and clear instructions, students can learn from their mistakes and learn how to do better. As teachers continue to guide their students towards self-reflection and good performance, it is only expected of the student to be able to develop positive beliefs and endure self-esteem. Their performance based on actionable feedback will not only be fruitful but it promotes teacher and peer dialogue around learning. As the student engages in learning, the motivation derived from the part of the teacher is noticeable and will be helpful in many ways. Finally, teachers recognise the weak points of students in understanding concepts and create a new technique or methodology which is helpful and can bring many changes that are useful.

Summative Assessment (SA) is equally important to ensure that the assessment aligns with the goals and expected outcomes of the instruction. Instructors can bring about the specifications which are essential to determine the expected performance criteria for a range of grades. With the specifications laid out, students can understand what they need to prepare for this final assessment and remember what they’ve learned. When students are given a set of questions to answer and also given space for their creativity and comprehension to flourish during exams, it is only expected how effective the questions given to them were, allowing room for the students to express in ways they have understood a concept. Similarly, when instructions are made clear, students can easily follow with no doubt, therefore, during the final assessment, the knowledge the students have covered in the course needs to correspond to how much they need to write during the exam. 

Therefore, if both of these assessments are implemented effectively, the results can be extremely fruitful to the teacher and student simultaneously. They offer as many advantages as one thinks therefore the necessity to follow their proper usage is important, as seen through the example of Happy English School.

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Located in: Krishna Nagar, New Delhi
Established in: 1954
Affiliation: CBSE

Happy English School (HES) is a primary-day school which is focused on imparting knowledge in an environment which is vibrant and secure to every individual. The school sets a vision to bring about the development of essential skills in the minds of their students and “learn by doing” evidently sets the foundation of those essential skills like critical thinking, analyzing carefully and reflecting. The atmosphere of the school facilitates students to learn in every aspect. The staffs administrative, teachers, leaders and parents themselves are committed to learning and constructing new knowledge and methodologies to help bring out the best in the students. 

As the school aims to impart holistic education to the students for a bright future, it is essential that a certain kind of exposure is offered to the student so that they can be nurtured by a variety of experiences for their own development and growth. With the multitude of skills a child can endure, handling problems and challenges in the near future can only be embraced by the students. Critical thinking is an essential skill in today’s competitive world, and HES stimulate the child to learn; ignites the mind to develop critical thinking. The school rightly puts emphasis on honing this skill in the curriculum of the students so that they can learn to develop their minds to think rationally. With rational thinking, the students will learn how to cope with situations in life and analyze them carefully so that they can make the right decisions. 

The effective use of formative and summative assessment can lead to fruitful educational development in students, and importantly, the blending of these two assessments can bring about better results for both learners and instructors. Therefore, you, as a reader, can make a choice and have a look at many sources which state that formative assessment is better but a school which implements both of these assessments at the same time is something to keep in mind.

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