In this blog post, we will look at how educational assessment affects the direction and quality of classes, along with changes in the roles of teachers and students.

What is educational assessment?

With interest in evaluation at an all-time high, evaluation is now used in a variety of ways in almost every field. Evaluation is undoubtedly one of the universal behaviors that humans engage in throughout their lives. Since we must constantly judge the value and quality of everything that exists in our lives, evaluation is an important task that must be discussed and explored alongside human life itself. Various forms of assessment have long been used in education. Teachers spend a significant portion of their working hours on assessment-related activities. The same is true for students. Students invest a tremendous amount of time preparing for assessments, and the results of these assessments have a decisive impact on the lives of individual students.
The concept of educational evaluation has been defined in various ways by scholars. The goal-oriented definition defines educational evaluation as the process of determining the extent to which educational goals have actually been achieved through the curriculum and classroom activities. However, the goal-oriented definition emphasizes only one educational goal and may overlook the evaluation of areas that are not set as goals. It also has the limitation of not including the evaluation of whether the goals themselves are set appropriately. The decision-making-oriented definition defines educational evaluation as an activity or process of collecting information necessary for making decisions related to education. The decision-making-oriented definition focuses on separating the roles of evaluators and decision-makers, but it has the limitation of lacking an explanation of situations where it is difficult to distinguish between information-gathering activities and decision-making. The value-judgment-centered definition defines educational evaluation as the process and product of judging the merits, quality, and value of something related to education. This definition focuses on the professional judgment of the evaluator and emphasizes the final judgment. Considering these three perspectives, educational evaluation can be defined as the process of systematically investigating and utilizing the values and merits of the curriculum and its outcomes for the purpose of making decisions about the process or outcomes of education.
Educational evaluation helps make rational decisions on various educational issues that arise in the teaching and learning process. In the teaching and learning process, educational evaluation provides information that enables teachers to plan appropriate lessons, improve lesson content and methods, and judge the effectiveness of lessons. Educational evaluation also promotes learning by providing information on what students have learned and to what extent. Without educational evaluation, teaching and learning would probably not be carried out properly. If evaluation is not carried out in the teaching and learning process, teachers cannot plan appropriate lessons, know whether lessons are being conducted properly, or know whether lessons are effective. Without educational evaluation, many students would probably not pay attention in class at all.

Purpose and function of educational evaluation

The purpose of evaluation varies depending on how the meaning of educational evaluation is defined, and the function of evaluation varies depending on the purpose of evaluation. This is because where there is a purpose, there are actions to achieve it, and those actions are often referred to as functions. The functions of evaluation are so numerous that they cannot be listed one by one, but they can be summarized as follows: first, formative functions for development, revision, and exploration of alternatives; second, comprehensive functions for selection, qualification, and confirmation of responsibilities; and third, strategic functions for publicity, awareness, and motivation.
The formative function refers to the function of collecting information necessary for exploring and deciding on measures to develop new curricula and teaching strategies or to modify, supplement, and improve existing curricula, programs, teaching methods, school facilities, and school operations. The assessment conducted to perform this role is called formative assessment.
Formative assessment is conducted to promote learning and improve lessons by regularly checking and confirming whether lesson objectives are being achieved in the context of ongoing lessons and providing feedback to students and teachers. Feedback provided to students reinforces successful learning and identifies specific learning errors when students fail to learn. Specifically, formative assessment individualizes the pace of learning, increases motivation to learn, and diagnoses and corrects learning difficulties. Feedback provided to teachers provides information that can be used to improve teaching methods and procedures, ultimately maximizing learning effectiveness. In order for formative assessment to function properly, it is desirable to conduct it as frequently as possible, provide immediate feedback to students, and not reflect the assessment results in final grades.
The overall function refers to the function of assessment conducted for the purpose of evaluating the final results of education or clarifying the responsibilities of the parties who planned and implemented the education after confirming that the educational conditions, such as the educational program, teaching methods, educational facilities, educational environment, and educational policies, are optimal through formative assessment. The assessment conducted to perform these roles is called summative assessment.
Comprehensive evaluation refers to the judgmental activity conducted for the purpose of finally confirming the effectiveness and appropriateness of a series of activities or programs after they have been completed. Tests conducted to determine the effectiveness of a course after a certain period of time has elapsed are considered comprehensive evaluations. Semester-end and year-end exams, which are commonly conducted in schools, are representative examples of comprehensive evaluations.
The functions of summative assessment are to evaluate grades, grant qualifications or licenses in specific fields, provide a basis for predicting future achievement, provide a basis for comparing achievement between groups, and determine whether lessons are truly effective.
Unlike formative assessment, summative assessment is very important in that it provides a comprehensive picture of learning outcomes over a relatively long period of time. Furthermore, the results of summative assessment are used as important reference data when making decisions that have a significant impact on individuals, such as entrance examinations and qualification examinations. For this reason, special care must be taken in the preparation and administration of tests and examinations intended for summative assessment.
The formative function is also referred to as the prospective function of educational evaluation, as it is an evaluation function that is carried out before any educational measures are implemented or while they are being implemented in order to collect information necessary for identifying deficiencies in the program development process and revising and supplementing the program. Unlike the formative function, the summative function is called the retrospective function because it is an evaluation function that is carried out at the end of an educational measure or activity.
The prospective and retrospective functions of evaluation are not distinguished by the content and form of the evaluation, but are determined by the purpose and timing of the evaluation. If evaluation is conducted to identify and supplement problems during the implementation of new operational measures, it is a prospective evaluation, and conversely, if evaluation is conducted to assess the results and impact of new operational measures after their implementation, it is a retrospective evaluation.
The strategic function is a shortened term for the psychological, social, and political functions of evaluation. The strategic function refers to the function of evaluation conducted for the purpose of simply attracting students’ attention, motivating them to learn, or promoting changes in the direction and focus of school education or events and activities planned by the school to the local community and parents.

Procedures for educational evaluation

There are various discussions on the basic procedures for educational evaluation, but they can be broadly divided into the following: confirmation of evaluation purposes, selection of evaluation areas and contents, selection and development of evaluation methods, establishment and preparation of evaluation implementation plans, collection and implementation of evaluation data, analysis and interpretation of evaluation results, reporting and utilization of evaluation results, and meta-evaluation.
The first thing to do in educational assessment is to confirm the purpose of the assessment. When teachers assess students, they must confirm the purpose of the assessment, i.e., why they are conducting the assessment. Confirming the purpose of the assessment affects all subsequent steps. The purpose of assessment can be broadly divided into formative and summative purposes. Formative purposes focus on improving, revising, and supplementing lessons. The summative purpose focuses on collecting information related to determining responsibility, grading, and selection.
The next step is to consider what to evaluate based on the determined purpose of the evaluation, which is the stage of selecting the evaluation domain and content. The evaluation domain determines which domain to evaluate among the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of students. For example, even if the intention is to evaluate creative thinking, it is possible to end up measuring simple knowledge memorization, or even if the intention is to confirm prosocial attitudes, it is possible to end up measuring the level of knowledge. Therefore, in order to make evaluation correct and valid, it is necessary to clearly identify what is to be evaluated and specify what is to be evaluated.
After selecting the assessment areas and content, select the assessment methods or develop new ones. In other words, once it is clear what to assess, the next step is to decide how to assess it. Each assessment method has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it is important to select the method that is most appropriate for the learning objectives. Assessment tools can be existing tools or ones developed by the teacher. When using existing tools, their reliability and validity must be carefully examined before use. When developing tools themselves, teachers must give sufficient consideration to the purpose of the assessment, the areas and content to be assessed, and the assessment methods.
Once the assessment methods have been selected, a plan for implementing the assessment must be established. The plan for conducting the assessment should include all the necessary conditions and environment for conducting the assessment, such as the assessment targets, number of assessments, timing of assessments, assessment locations, personnel required for assessment, scoring methods, and other equipment. The assessment plan should be thoroughly established before conducting the assessment. In addition, it is necessary to confirm and check that all preparations are in place before conducting the assessment.
During the evaluation, it is most important to create a situation in which the subjects can express themselves fully and honestly. Simply distributing test papers and answer sheets, strictly enforcing the start and end times, and preventing cheating are only one aspect of evaluation. Even if the assessment plan has been carefully prepared, it is likely that some parts of the plan will need to be revised or reworked when the assessment is actually conducted. Therefore, before collecting assessment data, it is essential to check for any necessary improvements and take the necessary measures before proceeding with data collection.
Once the assessment is complete and the data has been collected, the learners’ responses, i.e., evidence of their behavior, must be organized. At this stage, the evaluation results must be analyzed and recorded to create basic data for evaluation. The collected data must be analyzed appropriately in accordance with the purpose and content of the evaluation. Data analysis is divided into quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. The analysis method varies depending on the nature of the collected data. In order to derive meaningful results from the collected data, it is most important to apply the appropriate analysis technique to the data.
Once the data has been analyzed, the evaluation results revealed by the analysis must be interpreted. The interpretation of evaluation results must be comprehensive and take into account the characteristics and circumstances of each individual being evaluated. Evaluation conducted in schools is part of the educational process, so the interpretation of evaluation results should provide information that is useful for the educational process.
Once the evaluation results have been analyzed and interpreted, they should be summarized and reported to the relevant parties. The form of the report varies depending on whether the purpose of the evaluation was assigned by an external party or set by the individual teacher. In the case of external evaluations, there is a standard format, but in the case of teacher self-evaluations, there is no standard format.
The use of evaluation results can be divided into use for evaluation purposes, use for educational purposes, and use as self-evaluation data. The results of the evaluation should be used in accordance with the purpose of the evaluation. For example, the results of a pop quiz conducted for formative evaluation should not be included in the end-of-semester grades, but should be used to motivate students to learn and check their understanding. The results of internal classroom observation conducted to improve teachers’ teaching should be used as data to improve teachers’ teaching skills, and should not be used to evaluate teachers’ performance.
Assessment conducted in schools ends with the confirmation of assessment objectives and the utilization of assessment results. However, teachers need to assess whether each stage has been carried out properly, which is called meta-assessment. Meta-assessment is conducted for the purpose of confirming or checking the quality of assessment through an assessment of the entire assessment process, including the assessment plan, implementation process, and assessment results, in order to improve the quality of assessment and enhance the usefulness of assessment results.

The Development of Educational Evaluation

The history of educational evaluation has existed alongside the history of humankind, and it has diversified and developed as a specialized field of study influenced by historical and political events. The origins of evaluation date back more than 2,000 years in the East, with the formalized Chinese imperial examination system, and in the West, with Socrates’ oral evaluation method of dialogue. However, these evaluations were not scientific or systematic, as they were based on subjective forces influenced by religious and political beliefs.
Tyler in the United States was the first to establish an academic system for scientific research on educational evaluation. Along with Tyler’s introduction of the term “educational evaluation,” historical events such as the end of World War II and the launch of the Soviet Union’s unmanned satellite Sputnik changed the basic direction of educational evaluation.
Based on these historical events, the history of educational evaluation can be broadly divided into seven periods. The first period is from 1792, when quantitative methods, which are considered to be the beginning of evaluation, appeared, to the end of the 19th century, when reform movements arose. The second period, from the early 20th century, when Fredrick Taylor’s scientific management movement began, through World War I, to 1930, was a period when research on the efficiency of schools and teachers was conducted in large schools and education offices, and inspections were prevalent in the fields of education and industry. The third period was from 1930, when Ralph W. Tyler first used the term “educational evaluation,” to 1945, when World War II ended. This was the period of Tyler, when the results of his eight years of research caused a stir. The fourth period was from 1946, when World War II ended, to 1957, a period of political and economic stability, when external events and the social purpose of research did not come to the fore, and it was a peaceful period of purity. The fifth period is from 1958, when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite, to 1972, a period of development in which education entered a new turning point, a new direction for evaluation was called for, and various evaluation models emerged. The sixth period, from 1973 to 1983, was a period of specialization, in which the areas of evaluation were subdivided and specified, the expertise of evaluation specialists increased, and specialized evaluation journals, associations, and evaluation institutions began to emerge. The seventh and final period, from 1983 to the present, is a period of expansion and integration, in which educational evaluation has established itself as a field of study and is actively exchanged through evaluation networks centered on academic societies and associations around the world.

Educational Evaluation in Korea

Looking at how educational evaluation has changed and developed in Korea, it can be divided into six major periods, focusing on changes in evaluation methods and systems. The first period is from the emergence of the initial form of educational evaluation in Korea to the 1900s, when traditional systems were in place. The second period, from 1900, when modern schools began to develop, to 1945, when Japanese colonial rule ended, was a period in which relative evaluation was introduced, whereby grades were calculated for each subject taught in modern schools and rankings were determined accordingly. The third period was from immediately after liberation to the early 1970s, when multiple-choice questions and standardized tests were introduced in schools. The fourth period was from the mid-1970s to the late 1970s, when absolute evaluation was introduced for each subject. The fifth period, from the 1980s to the mid-1990s, saw the introduction of a mixed system of relative and absolute evaluation. Finally, the sixth period, from the late 1990s to the present, has seen the introduction and establishment of performance-based evaluation.
For half a century after liberation, educational evaluation in South Korea developed relatively quickly by adopting and utilizing the concepts and methods of evaluation developed in the West, particularly in the United States. However, the unilateral introduction of the American-style educational evaluation system created a culture in which testing was equated with evaluation and educational evaluation was perceived as merely a means of measuring student performance.
In order for the theory and practice of educational assessment in Korea to develop further in the future, it is important to introduce and appropriately utilize theories from advanced countries, but it is also necessary to continue research and efforts to develop and apply unique theories that are suitable for our culture and circumstances.
In addition, it is necessary to overcome the conventional relative evaluation system and aim for an absolute evaluation system that is educationally desirable. Efforts should also be made to establish a qualitative evaluation system, such as performance evaluation, so that teaching and learning activities can be improved and individual students can receive guidance, advice, and counsel. Furthermore, with the advent of the age of knowledge and information, we must actively utilize information and communication technology to improve the efficiency of educational evaluation, while also providing active support, including expanding various education and training opportunities to enhance the expertise of individual teachers in educational evaluation, and encouraging teachers to engage in voluntary research and efforts.

Recent trends in educational evaluation

Looking at the latest trends in educational assessment that require attention in schools, the first thing to note is the changing perspective on student assessment. The traditional perspective was to assess learning, with the focus on the results of learning. Assessment of learning emphasizes results rather than the learning process and places importance on measuring fragmented knowledge and facts based on memorization. However, the recent concept is assessment that supports learning. This type of assessment fosters problem-solving and creativity and emphasizes respect for individual differences among learners, ultimately enabling students to be better understood and think more clearly, thereby helping them in their learning.
Second, criterion-referenced assessment is gaining prominence. The emergence of criterion-referenced assessment can be seen as stemming from criticism of traditional norm-referenced assessment. In norm-referenced assessment, the ultimate standard is the comparative scores of the students being assessed. Therefore, in norm-referenced assessment, scores are always comparative or ranked. These scores only tell us the relative position of one student compared to others in terms of how well or poorly they performed. In contrast, in criterion-referenced assessment, the criterion for assessment is the specific level of achievement that students must attain. Generally, this criterion is set in advance through educational discussions, and all assessments are based on whether students have attained these educational achievement standards. Therefore, criterion-referenced assessment scores are described as the degree to which students have attained specific achievement standards.
Third, there are changes and diversification in assessment methods. Changes in assessment methods are developing from various perspectives. First, there is a shift from quantitative assessment to qualitative assessment, from indirect assessment to direct assessment, from structured assessment to unstructured assessment, from artificial assessment to natural assessment, from teacher-centered assessment to student-centered assessment, and from fragmented task assessment to integrated task assessment.
Fourth, there is a strengthening of the obligation to disclose evaluations and enhance transparency. Under the school information disclosure system, the disclosure of academic achievement has become mandatory. The disclosure of evaluation results can lead to desirable changes in education. When school evaluation results are disclosed to the media and the local community, school members make efforts to improve themselves, and students and parents can refer to these results when choosing a school. Generally, evaluation results are not disclosed for social and political reasons and because they may cause conflict among those involved in the evaluation. However, refusing to disclose evaluation results may raise doubts about the validity and fairness of the evaluation. Disclosing evaluation results enhances the credibility of the evaluation because it allows the fairness and accountability of the evaluation itself to be verified. In this way, evaluation results influence the development of individuals, institutions, and even society and the nation.

Teacher professionalism and ethics

With the emphasis on classroom assessment, improving the assessment skills of teachers in the field has become an important issue. Teacher assessment expertise refers to the ability to collect, interpret, and utilize assessment information related to student learning and achievement. In other words, it refers to the core knowledge, skills, and attitudes that teachers must understand and utilize in order to properly assess students, including selection, development, implementation, and utilization of results.
In Korea, assessment expertise standards are classified into content standards and performance standards. Content standards are divided into knowledge of the curriculum, knowledge of teaching and learning, knowledge of educational assessment, and knowledge of subject content. Performance standards are divided into selection of assessment methods, development of assessment tools, assessment implementation, scoring, and grading, interpretation, analysis, utilization, and communication of assessment results, and ethical assessment.
Teachers acquire a great deal of information and data about their students in the process of guiding and assessing them. Some of this information and data should be known and handled only by the teacher, while other information should be shared with other teachers. In particular, teachers are required to have assessment expertise based on sound values and thinking in order to fulfill their role as student assessors. The ethical dimension of assessment is the area of teacher assessment expertise.
The specific expertise required in this area is the ethics of respect for students, which should be inherent in all assessment activities; the legal ethics that must be observed at a minimum; awareness of fairness; and the ethics of self-reflection that enables teachers to reflect on their own assessment activities. Assessors must adhere to ethical standards and etiquette in all activities related to assessment, including preparation, agreement, planning, implementation, reporting of results, and utilization. In addition, they must respect all stakeholders involved in the assessment process as human beings, recognize their diverse needs, and strive to fulfill their professional and scientific responsibilities by utilizing appropriate tools and systematic designs while minimizing negative effects and side effects.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that in the past, the main function of educational evaluation was to classify and grade students according to their abilities. It gave the impression that tests were given just to record grades on report cards and school records.
This phenomenon can be attributed to the fact that educational evaluation failed to fulfill its role as a means of judging educational value and remained merely a form of measurement and testing. Measurement is a quantitative description that does not involve any value judgment of a situation or attribute. Therefore, it does not require any further meaning or action. However, as the words “evaluation” and “assessment” imply, evaluation is related to value judgment, which inevitably entails certain prescriptions and measures based on that judgment.
When the results of educational evaluation are not linked back to educational activities in any way, it cannot be considered true educational evaluation. The results of educational evaluation are not only meant to praise or warn students to study harder, but also to prompt teachers to take certain actions and measures. Teachers may provide supplementary instruction or assign additional work, and if that is difficult, they may even request supplementary instruction from parents. If simply recognizing deficiencies is all that is done, then such evaluation is worthless.
The results of educational evaluation should not only provide corrective information to students, but also be used to identify and correct errors in the teacher’s teaching activities. If the majority of the students I teach have difficulty in a particular area, I must reflect on whether there is a problem with my teaching. This is because if students misunderstand something, it means that I have explained it incorrectly, and if students lack understanding, it means that my explanation is insufficient. In this sense, educational evaluation is an act of constant self-reflection and self-criticism on the part of teachers.

Problems with educational evaluation

Among the various terms used in schools today, few are as misunderstood and misinterpreted as the term “evaluation.” When we hear the word “evaluation,” we automatically think of tests, and tests are thought of as written exams consisting of a certain number of multiple-choice questions. As a result, it is difficult to deny that students understand evaluation as a series of numbers that do not even amount to basic statistics, expressed as grades on report cards or rankings, and that teachers understand it as “grade processing.” Therefore, when it comes to evaluation, many people accept it as a necessary evil that schools carry out out of habit, or even give the impression that evaluation is conducted for the purpose of giving students report cards or recording their performance in their school records. Furthermore, evaluation leads parents to adopt a misguided educational perspective, causing them to focus solely on getting their children good grades and high rankings. In extreme cases, evaluation is misunderstood as a source of evil that hinders the normal operation of the school curriculum and prevents the proper implementation of human education itself.
The background to these misunderstandings about educational evaluation certainly includes external factors unrelated to educational evaluation, such as our educational system, which emphasizes selection and classification, and a social climate that views education solely as a means of social advancement. However, there are also external problems arising from deficiencies in the systems and methods of evaluation used in schools. Ultimately, these various factors lead us to have a misunderstanding and misguided belief about evaluation, which in turn affects the actual evaluation process and tends to exacerbate the problems caused by evaluation.
In order to break this vicious cycle, it is important to develop the technical theories and methods of educational evaluation, but first and foremost, we must correct our misunderstanding and misguided beliefs about educational evaluation.