Educational assessments are critical for enabling educators and learners to make the most of their programmes. They also help educators to comprehend the cognitive abilities of the learners and devise instructional strategies that work best for them. Indeed, knowing the differences between various types of assessments helps you understand the way you can use assessments to your benefit. Their multi-faceted attributes mean that there is something for everyone when it comes to learning. The facets will be the basis of adopting a formal or informal learning structure. Here is a piece to shed more light on this topic and help you make the most of this conversation:

Diagnostic Educational Assessments

The primary purpose of diagnostic educational assessments is to measure the amount of pre-loaded information that the learner has concerning a particular topic. Essentially, the term diagnostic refers to evaluating the status of a learner. It defines the basis of the instructor's mode of conveying the lessons in a particular unit or course. In the end, the teacher can tell how much the student knows regarding the topic in question. They will also shift the focus of the lesson to the areas that the student doesn't understand to broaden their scope of understanding.

Diagnostic educational assessments occur at the beginning of the period, unit or lesson. The objective is to gauge the learner's state and inform the method of instruction.

Formative Educational Assessment

You have certainly heard the word "form" in the sporting world to describe how a player is performing in a match or season. The same term can apply to learning when considering the performance of a student. Typically, a formative educational assessment focuses on how well the learner is picking up the information in the lessons. The instructor uses this assessment to check in with the students instead of carrying out assessments at the end of the learning period.

Formative assessments aim at identifying the retention of knowledge and informing any need to change the method of instruction.

Benchmark Educational Assessments

Learning takes place in different stages. Therefore, a student must show a thorough understanding of the concepts in one stage before he or she can proceed to the next stage. Benchmark assessments reveal if the students have adequate mastery of the topic or units and are ready to proceed to the next level of learning. Usually, benchmark assessments are taken by a group of learners based on their grades, age, location or learning institution. The tests show that students have a specific level of cognitive ability that enables them to move on to more complex lessons.