Good education is the one that is accompanied by continuous and accurate evaluation of all aspects of the education process, whether knowledge and information, abilities, skills, or sentimental and emotional aspects, during the education process in all its stages; that is, before starting the education process to determine the level of the individual who should start with it.
and then during the learning process to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the students in preparation for developing remedial programs to avoid weaknesses and enhance strengths, and certainly good education requires a final evaluation at the end of the education process to judge the extent to which goals set at the beginning of education are achieved.
Definition of Evaluation in Education
Evaluation means appreciating something, giving it value, judging it, and fixing its crookedness. Cronbach defines it as “a continuous process to obtain the necessary information to make an appropriate decision related to an educational program and to make suggestions for improving and developing the latter.”
Thrandik says, “Evaluation is an integrated process in which the goals of an aspect of education are determined and the degree to which these goals are achieved is assessed.”
Andrews said, “Evaluation is that process through which we give grades or meanings with special significance in relation to the data gathered from the application of the measurement methods used.”
Bloom's definition is the most important definition in this field. He believes that evaluation is "to make a judgment about ideas, actions, teaching methods, materials, and many other educational matters.
So educational evaluation is the process of collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating data, issuing a judgment on it, and then starting to develop remedial steps and programs that will modify and change it. With the aim of moving it towards improvement until achieving the desired goal.
Evaluation types
1. Diagnostic Evaluation
It is the type of assessment that takes place before starting the education process. Its purpose is to measure the learners' skills, information, and knowledge before starting the educational program for each axis.
The advance assessment determines the level of the learner based on his previous experiences so that he can build on them in each lesson and distributes the learners into levels according to the level of each one of them.
There are many methods used in advance assessment, the most prominent of which are short questions in both oral and written form, telling a short story followed by dialogue and discussion, brainstorming sessions, and various individual or group activities.
2. Formative Evaluation
It is called the interim or formative evaluation, and this type of evaluation is an integral part of the educational process. As it is applied during it, walks with it, and goes along with it in all its stages, the aim of it is not to pass judgment; rather, it is to provide timely feedback to both the teacher and the learner with the aim of improving the education process and correcting its course by addressing the difficulties encountered.
Supporters of this evaluation assert that the use of this type of evaluation will make the vast majority of learners able to achieve the set goals, and among the methods used in applying this evaluation are “short questions of both oral and written forms, brainstorming, short stories, individual and group activities, short exercises, and short reports.”
3. Summative Evaluation
It is the final evaluation, and it is conducted at the end of the educational program or the end of the semester. It is characterized by determining the degree to which learners achieve the main outcomes of learning a course and is often linked to administrative decisions such as success and failure decisions as well as classification decisions such as classifying learners into those who have mastered learning and those who have not mastered it.
Some of the methods used in the final evaluation are "semester exams of both types: oral exams or written exams."
4. Confirmative Evaluation
It aims to monitor the aspects of difference and discrepancy between the expected performance and the performance achieved by the learner and to suggest appropriate treatment methods.
As this type works to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each learner, in addition to focusing on the learning difficulties of learners, this evaluation works to adapt education to the needs of the learner, as it does not stop at identifying the problem; rather, it continues until the learner has mastered the skills and competencies required to be achieved.
Educational Evaluation requirements
1. Requirements for understanding the evaluation problem
Here, the designer of the educational evaluation program should be fully aware of the factors surrounding the problem in society, whether educational or not, such as educational policy, educational goals, the study system, the prevailing means of evaluation, and moral and social factors such as customs, traditions, and prevailing values.
This can even include political factors, such as the type of ruling regime, or economic and financial factors, which is represented in choosing evaluative means with available financial means. In fact, these factors affect the lives of teachers, learners, parents of learners, and society in general.
2. Content Understanding Requirements
The evaluation program must be prepared in a way that suits the goals set and can achieve them, and the preparer of the evaluation must determine the function of the evaluation. Is it the evaluation of students’ achievement in a specific subject? Or evaluation of the final achievement? Or a diagnosis of a learning disability?
In addition to that, to ensure understanding of the content, knowledge of the characteristics of the learner, the content of the scientific material, the appropriate means of evaluation, the criteria that must be relied upon, and the cut-off scores to be able to issue the appropriate judgment.
The most common methods of educational evaluation are
1. Achievement tests
It is a set of written or oral questions, pictures, or drawings to measure in a quantitative manner how the learner's information is organized and issue a judgment indicating the individual differences between the learners.
Measuring student achievement in a specific subject after completing a course or identifying the reasons for academic delay is an essential step in developing a remedial program.
In addition to defining the objective of the test and the procedural objectives clearly and without ambiguity, there are many types of achievement tests, including:
1.1. Essay tests
used in the event of a desire to measure the learner's ability to remember, understand, comprehend, and memorize, and discover his ability to formulate language. The student has to write; they may write one page or several pages.
1.2. Semi-essay or complementary tests
This is a type of test that requires the learner to answer with a word, sentence, or semi-sentence and is often used to measure knowledge of definitions or short explanations.
1.3. Objective tests
These are the questions that help the teacher cover the entire course, and there are many types of them, such as true or false questions, choosing the correct answer, order questions, such as the order of phrases or words, and connection questions.
2. Continuous Evaluation Method
It is the type of evaluation that accompanies the educational process in all its stages. It identifies strengths and weaknesses and provides feedback to permanently correct its path until the end of its goal and its successful achievement.
3. Class questions
One of the most important means used by the teacher to achieve the objectives of the educational process is fragmentation. This method allows the fragmentation of what is required to be presented to the learner in the form of questions in a logical sequence, and these questions have a range of types, including:
3.1. Evaluative tests
They are used at the end of the learning process to verify the extent to which the objectives of the educational process have been achieved. These questions take a collective form in the sense that they are presented in one form to all learners.
3.2. Teaching tests
used during the educational process, they can be adapted in a way that suits the learners and their needs. In the sense that it takes into account individual differences, so it differs between one learner and another learner, and it is given to the learner informally and without being written in advance, and then the desire and fear of failure disappear with it.
In conclusion
Evaluation, in its essence, is an educational process that is planned in advance, based on the desired goals, and linked to the introduction of improvements or modifications to the educational system or one of its basic elements. It is a comprehensive process for all aspects of the educational process, starting from the objectives, the teacher in terms of their preparation and competence, and the learner and all issues related to them, from behavior to achievement to tendencies.
Likewise, teaching methods, educational aids, and curricula in terms of their suitability for the learner, school administration, its methods, and its consequences on the educational process, educational supervision, its efficiency, school buildings, and the extent of effective use of their contents, such as classrooms, computer rooms, and so on. Evaluation is not just giving a number; it is a multi-dimensional, integrated, and important process for the success of the educational process and its continuity until it achieves its desired goals.
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