1. The Difference Between Assessment and Evaluation
H. Stephen Straight
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
Teaching Assistant Orientation
28 August 2002

2. What Is Teaching? Brainstorm:
Think of different ways to define “teaching”.
Write down at least three different definitions of teaching.
Pair up with someone to choose the best ONE of your six-plus definitions.
Share your definitions with the group, one at a time in sequence.

3. Definitions of Teaching
To present information, insights.
To reveal knowledge or skill.
To help students learn.
NOTE: All of the above can be accomplished either deliberately or incidentally.
That is, you can teach by means of explicit instruction, ongoing guidance, deliberate modeling, or accidental example.

4. Ways to Improve Teaching and Learning
Implement research-based “best practices”.
Employ an assessment-informed model of teaching focused on measurable student learning outcomes.

5. Good Practice in UG Education (after Arthur Chickering & Zelda Gamson 1989)
1. Maximizes student/faculty contact.
2. Develops student cooperation.
3. Uses active learning techniques.
4. Gives feedback promptly.
5. Emphasizes time on task.
6. Communicates high expectations.
7. Respects learners’ diversity.

6. Ways to Improve Teaching and Learning
Implement research-based “best practices”.
Think of at least one way to implement each item of “practice”.
Write down each example.
Pair up with the person next to you to choose the best example of each.
Share your findings with the group.

7. Ways to Improve Teaching and Learning
Implement research-based “best practices”.
Employ an assessment-informed model of teaching focused on measurable student learning outcomes.
But first we need to distinguish “assessment” from “evaluation”.

8. Assessment vs. Evaluation
What are the three most striking differences between the two?
If we had time, I’d have you …
Think
Write
Pair
Share

9. Dimensions of Difference Between Assessment and Evaluation
Timing
Focus of Measurement
Relationship Between Administrator & Recipient
Findings, Uses Thereof
Ongoing Modifiability of Criteria, Measures Thereof
Standards of Measurement
Relation Between Different Objects of A/E

10. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Formative: Ongoing to Improve Learning
Timing

11. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Formative: Ongoing to Improve Learning
Summative: Final to Gauge Quality
Focus of Measurement

12. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Formative: Ongoing to Improve Learning
Summative: Final to Gauge Quality
Process-Oriented: How Learning Is Going
Focus of Measurement

13. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Formative: Ongoing to Improve Learning
Summative: Final to Gauge Quality
Process-Oriented: How Learning Is Going
Product-Oriented: What’s Been Learned
Administrator/Recipient Relationship

14. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Formative: Ongoing to Improve Learning
Summative: Final to Gauge Quality
Process-Oriented: How Learning Is Going
Product-Oriented: What’s Been Learned
Reflective: Internally Defined Criteria/Goals
Administrator/Recipient Relationship

15. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Formative: Ongoing to Improve Learning
Summative: Final to Gauge Quality
Process-Oriented: How Learning Is Going
Product-Oriented: What’s Been Learned
Reflective: Internally Defined Criteria/Goals
Prescriptive:External-ly Imposed Standards
Findings, Uses Thereof

16. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Formative: Ongoing to Improve Learning
Summative: Final to Gauge Quality
Process-Oriented: How Learning Is Going
Product-Oriented: What’s Been Learned
Reflective: Internally Defined Criteria/Goals
Prescriptive:External-ly Imposed Standards
Diagnostic: Identify Areas for Improvement
Findings, Uses Thereof

17. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Formative: Ongoing to Improve Learning
Summative: Final to Gauge Quality
Process-Oriented: How Learning Is Going
Product-Oriented: What’s Been Learned
Reflective: Internally Defined Criteria/Goals
Prescriptive:External-ly Imposed Standards
Diagnostic: Identify Areas for Improvement
Judgmental: Arrive at an Overall Grade/Score
Ongoing Modifiability of Criteria, Measures

18. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Formative: Ongoing to Improve Learning
Summative: Final to Gauge Quality
Process-Oriented: How Learning Is Going
Product-Oriented: What’s Been Learned
Reflective: Internally Defined Criteria/Goals
Prescriptive:External-ly Imposed Standards
Diagnostic: Identify Areas for Improvement
Judgmental: Arrive at an Overall Grade/Score
Flexible: Adjust As Problems Are Clarified
Ongoing Modifiability of Criteria, Measures

19. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Process-Oriented: How Learning Is Going
Product-Oriented: What’s Been Learned
Reflective: Internally Defined Criteria/Goals
Prescriptive:External-ly Imposed Standards
Diagnostic: Identify Areas for Improvement
Judgmental: Arrive at an Overall Grade/Score
Flexible: Adjust As Problems Are Clarified
Fixed: To Reward Success, Punish Failure
Standards of Measurement

20. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Process-Oriented: How Learning Is Going
Product-Oriented: What’s Been Learned
Reflective: Internally Defined Criteria/Goals
Prescriptive:External-ly Imposed Standards
Diagnostic: Identify Areas for Improvement
Judgmental: Arrive at an Overall Grade/Score
Flexible: Adjust As Problems Are Clarified
Fixed: To Reward Success, Punish Failure
Absolute: Strive for Ideal Outcomes
Standards of Measurement

21. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Reflective: Internally Defined Criteria/Goals
Prescriptive:External-ly Imposed Standards
Diagnostic: Identify Areas for Improvement
Judgmental: Arrive at an Overall Grade/Score
Flexible: Adjust As Problems Are Clarified
Fixed: To Reward Success, Punish Failure
Absolute: Strive for Ideal Outcomes
Comparative: Divide Better from Worse
Relation Between Objects of A/E

22. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Reflective: Internally Defined Criteria/Goals
Prescriptive:External-ly Imposed Standards
Diagnostic: Identify Areas for Improvement
Judgmental: Arrive at an Overall Grade/Score
Flexible: Adjust As Problems Are Clarified
Fixed: To Reward Success, Punish Failure
Absolute: Strive for Ideal Outcomes
Comparative: Divide Better from Worse
Coöperative: Learn from Each Other
Relation Between Objects of A/E

23. Assessment n Evaluation (various sources, but especially Dan Apple 1998)
Reflective: Internally Defined Criteria/Goals
Prescriptive:External-ly Imposed Standards
Diagnostic: Identify Areas for Improvement
Judgmental: Arrive at an Overall Grade/Score
Flexible: Adjust As Problems Are Clarified
Fixed: To Reward Success, Punish Failure
Absolute: Strive for Ideal Outcomes
Comparative: Divide Better from Worse
Coöperative: Learn from Each Other
Competitive: Beat Each Other Out

24. Summary of Differences
Dimension of Difference
Assessment
Evaluation
Timing
Formative
Summative
Focus of Measurement
Process-Oriented
Product-Oriented
Relationship Between Administrator and Recipient
Reflective
Prescriptive
Findings, Uses Thereof
Diagnostic
Judgmental
Ongoing Modifiability of Criteria, Measures Thereof
Flexible
Fixed
Standards of Measurement
Absolute
Comparative
Relation Between Objects of A/E
Coöperative
Competitive

25. Assessment vs. Evaluation
If we had time, I’d have you Think, Write, Pair, Share to come up with examples of assessment and evaluation to show that:
The multidimensionality of the difference between them, and the variation in each dimension, result in a very diverse array of examples, the majority of which are neither “assessment” nor “evaluation” but rather hybrids.

26. Ways to Improve Teaching and Learning
Implement research-based “best practices”.
Put the examples into practice.
Employ an assessment-informed model of teaching focused on measurable student learning outcomes.
How to do this?

27. Employ an assessment-informed model of teaching
Define learning outcomes (desired by teachers and/or learners) well in advance.
Assess progress toward outcomes, by and for both teacher and learner, continually during learning.
Evaluate attainment of outcomes rigorously as each learning opportunity concludes.
Moment-by-moment, meeting-by-meeting, course-by-course, semester-by-semester.

28. Measures of Learning
If we had time, I’d also have you examine examples of ways to measure learning with the aim of showing:
that any measurement of learning can be used either for assessment or for evaluation purposes,
but that some measures are better for one than for the other.

29. Ways to Improve Teaching and Learning
Implement research-based “best practices”.
Employ an assessment-informed model of teaching focused on measurable student learning outcomes.
Be vocal about what you’re doing to improve your teaching and your students’ learning – and listen to others’ stories about what they are doing.

30. Five Assessment Principles (after Thomas Angelo & Patricia Cross 1993)
To improve their teaching, faculty must define learning outcomes and measure their attainment.
To improve their learning, students must learn how to use feedback to assess their own progress (= “self-assessment”).
The best assessment derives from teachers’ questions about their own teaching.
Systematic assessment can be an intellectually challenging source of faculty satisfaction.
Assessment provides an impetus for active student involvement, a proven “best practice”.

31. Sources
Chickering & Gamson, Change (the journal of the Amer Assn for Higher Ed)
Apple, Process education teaching institute handbook (Pacific Crest)
Angelo & Cross, Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers, Second edition (Jossey-Bass)

32. Presenter: Steve Straight
H. Stephen Straight
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Binghamton University - SUNY
Professor of Anthropology and of Linguistics
Co-Director, Harpur College Linguistics Program
Associate Director, Center for Research In Translation
(secretary: Deborah Dunn)
(private voice mail)
(fax)