Why are both formative and summative evaluations important?
Formative assessment is ongoing and helps inform teachers of students process and acquisition of understanding. Formative assessment holds students accountable through the learning process. As you facilitate learning, you monitor the progress of the learner. Learning and assessing learning outcomes go hand-in-hand. Effective teachers are alert to the needs of particular students and the needs of the whole class. Formative assessment in the form of observation or note-taking can help you identify if there is an individual need, so you can work with that student one-on-one. If the whole class is experiencing a similar problem, you can provide a whole class mediation. The essential point is that formative assessment informs important instructional changes. The focus of summative assessment considers the student outcomes from an inquiry learning experience, such as the degree to which the processing of learning skills has been developed; the degree to which the habits of mind or “ground ru
