Diagnostic, Formative, and Summative Assessments

Diagnostic assessments are also known as pre-assessments. These assessments provide insight to the students prior knowledge and other misconceptions prior to beginning the activity. These assessments help the teacher to know what the student knows before the lesson and what the student knows after the lesson.

Formative assessments happen during the learning activity or instruction. This type of assessment assess on the spot whether the student understands the objectives and content or not. This way the teacher is able to adjust instruction based on the whether the students are struggling or not. Questioning is the main method used for this type of assessment.

Summative assessments are used after instruction to measure understanding of a subject. This type of assessment helps the teacher to know what the students know and what needs to be retaught. This type of assessment can be given every few weeks or months. Examples of this assessment are: high stakes tests, standardized tests, midterms and final exams.