Is Assessment of or for learning?

Assessment is a very versatile tool in any classroom. Many people assume that assessment is just the teacher giving a pen and paper exam, the students regurgitating information onto it, the teacher grading it, giving it back and moving on no matter what the scores are. 

This cycle is false. Assessment is used in many ways in the classroom. Assessment can be diagnostic. This form of assessment is used to see where students knowledge of a topic lies. Then there is formative assessment. This assessment happens on a daily basis in all of the activities that students participate in. This kind of assessment can be check for understanding questions, questions at the end of an experiment, or progress made on daily class work. The third type of assessment is summative assessment. This assessment is more formal. It measures students progress of learning from diagnostic learning on a topic. It could be an essay, a presentation, a poster, or any other kind of assessment that will summarize students learning of a topic. 

Then there is also Assessment Of learning and Assessment For learning. The table above explains the difference between Assessment of and for learning. All in all, assessment of learning is a more formal type of assessment. It would be considered summative assessment. It measures students learning growth over time. Assessment for learning is used to measure students knowledge of a topic and is used as a diagnostic form of assessment. It will help a teacher decide where he or she should go next with their lessons. Assessment for learning is much less formal than Assessment of learning. The table below compares and contrasts assessment for learning and assessment of learning. 

I definitely plan to use all three types of lessons in my future classes. Diagnostic, formative and summative assessment are all very important. They all serve their own purpose and are all equally important. I also plan to make some assessment for learning and some assessment of learning. Not every type of assessment necessarily needs a grade. Some of the assessments are just used to measure the students knowledge.