Page 365 - DEDU504_EDUCATIONAL_MEASUREMENT_AND_EVALUATION_ENGLISH

Unit 31 : Formative and Summative Evaluation

31.2.4 Advantages of Summative Evaluation Notes
Advantages of summative evaluation is judgemental in nature, hence it shows the worth or the
value of a programme.
It can be used for decision making so that learners can easily selected into placement streams
such as pupils are put into classes according to their test results.
Summative evaluation is useful for communicating with other stakeholders like parents, NGOs
or church organisation who need to assist in the education sector.
It is a useful tool for guidance and counselling. Above all it is done to evaluate the effectiveness
of teachers.
31.2.5 Disadvantages of Summative Evaluation
Disadvantages of summative evaluation comes rather too late at the end when learning difficulties
can no longer be rectified. It is only concerned with the end results.

Formative assessment is most appropriate where the results are to be used internally
by those involved in the learning process (students, lecturers, learning support
etc.), whilst summative assessment is most appropriate to succinctly communicate
students’ abilities to external interested parties.

Self Assessment

2. Fill in the blanks :
(i) ___________ is associated with more objective, quantitative methods of data collection.
(ii) ___________ evaluation is broader and assesses the overall or not effects.
(iii) ___________ analysis reexamines existing data to address new questions or use methods
not previously employed.
(iv) Summative evaluation is ___________ in nature and it is used for ___________.

31.3 Summary

• Formative evaluation seeks to strengthen or improve a programme or intervention by
examining, amongst other things, the delivery of the programmer, the quality of its
implementation and the organisational context, personnel, structures and procedures.
• Formative evaluation pays special attention to the delivery and intervention system, but
not exclusively. In formative evaluation, the evaluator also has to analyse the intervention
logic, the outcomes, the results and impacts.
• Formative evaluation may be planned and managed in a variety of ways. The prevailing
practice has been to prioritise the information needs of central staff (policy makers,
programme managers) as those primarily responsible for programme steerage, leaving
unspecified the roles that local staff (local site managers, local practitioners) and clients can
play in reshaping plans and strategies in response to feedbacks.
• Formative evaluation has most relevance at the ex ante and mid-term phases, and indeed
some programmes evolve continuously, never reaching a stage of being finished or complete.
Formative evaluation activities may be extended throughout the life of a programme to
help guide this evolution.
• Formative evaluation is ideally built into the programme design as an ongoing activity
rather than inserted into a particular phase.

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