The English language is full words whose meaning is quite close to each other that people get confused with their usage. Many people make a mistake with the usage of words like award and reward and attitude and aptitude.
Similarly, there is a pair of words assessment and evaluation, whose meaning is quite close yet different from each other.
Assessment is a systematic process of collecting information from diverse sources about something or someone to gauge the skills, knowledge, and usage, whereas the meaning of evaluation is concerned about making a judgment about quality, skills, or importance or something or someone.
When you assess a person, you assess the level of performance or that individual, and when you evaluate someone, you evaluate how much goal is attained by the individual.
These two words are commonly used in the academic system, and even teachers make the mistake of using these words interchangeably.
In this article, you will learn about the definition and usage of these words with the help of a few examples along with the key differences between them in tabular form.
Table of Contents
What is Assessment?
The word “assess” is derived from the Medieval Latin word “assessee” whose meaning is “fix a tax upon.” Therefore, assessment can be defined as the process of collecting information about something or somebody from different sources to get the idea of the knowledge or skills or quality possessed by it.
The term “assessment” is used in various fields such as education, taxation, human resources, psychology, and financial fields, etc.
The purpose of conducting an assessment is to provide constructive feedback so that the assessee (the assessed person) can improve. Assessment is a continuous interactive process where two parties are involved.
The assessor who assesses the performance of an individual in a particular field or in various fields to help the assessee improve. The word assessment often is used to assess skills, abilities, aptitude, performance, and competence.
For examples, the teacher assesses the performance of students in various subjects to assess the abilities and IQ level of students and help students to improve their performance.
There are three types of assessment.
#1 Summative assessment:
Summative assessment is done of an individual to assess their learning by the end of a decided period.
#2 Formative assessment:
Formative assessment is a continuous learning process. The feedback is provided to an individual during the process to make improvements in learning.
#3 Alternative Assessment:
It is different from the traditional assessment. In alternative assessment performance of an individual is assessed and assessed how skillfully an individual can implement the knowledge that he or she has acquired during the learning process.
The example of this type of assessment is an examination system in schools. Where students have to take verbal and written exams, solve assignments, give presentations to order to prove their level of learning.
What is evaluation?
The meaning of the word “evaluate” is to make a judgment about something or someone to learn about their abilities or skills or qualities. The word evaluate is derived from the Latin word “valere” whose meaning is to “too strong, be of value, be well, or be worth.”
The outcome of the evaluation process is the result. In an exam, the person’s ability to apply his or her knowledge is evaluated, and based on the outcome; conclusions are drawn.
The evaluation process is conducted to compare the skills and qualities of two or more individuals. The person being evaluated must fulfill the criteria set by the evaluator. Unlike assessment, the result of does not provide constructive feedback, but it passes the judgment.
The term can be used to gauge the effectiveness of an education system, a course, a curriculum, a teacher, etc. evaluation is a thorough process of accessing the performance of someone or something to determine the difference between the actual and intended outcomes.
The key differences between Assessment and Evaluation
| Assessment | Evaluation |
|---|---|
| The meaning of assessment is to review the data about something or someone from different sources in order to make improvement in the current performance. | The meaning of evaluation is to judge the performance of something or someone by measuring the performance on the basis of existing standards. |
| An assessment is an ongoing process. | An evaluation provide closure on the existing process. |
| The purpose of assessment is to improve the quality of performance. | The purpose of evaluation is to judge the performance. |
| The assessment is an individualized process and is not done against already set standards. | The evaluation is applied against the set standards. |
| The orientation of assessment is process oriented. | The orientation of evaluation is product oriented. |
| The outcome of assessment is constructive feedback. | The outcome of evaluation is to show shortcomings. |
| The assessment is graded. | The evaluation is not graded. |
| While assessing the relationship between two parties is reflective. | While evaluating the relationship between two parties is prespective. |
| The criteria of assessment is decided by the mutual understanding of both parties involved in the process. | The criteria of evaluation is solely decided by the evaluator. |
| For example, teacher does assessment of students’ performance and provide constructive feedback. | For example, the evaluation of the skills of a candidate is done before hiring him or her for the job. |
Conclusion
However, evaluation and assessment are both used to review the performance of an individual. But these two terms are used in a completely different context.
The assessment is done to provide constructive feedback and the motive behind assessment to improve, whereas, evaluation is done to judge
the ability of an individual or system to pass judgment.
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