Both formal and informal assessments have their place in the educational system and they are used for different purposes. Whereas informal assessments could consist of the results in a latest spelling test - such as 15 out of 20 - formal assessments tend to determine how a student is performing in vital milestones such as learning to read and applying arithmetic correctly.
Usually, to contrast one person's ability in a certain subject or skill while using formal assessments, their results will be contrasted with an average that has been taken school-wide, nationwide, or with a pool of results from similar children.
Of course, dependent on the educational institution, the approach taken to formal and informal assessments - not to mention the ratio to which both are used, will vary.
Some would argue that both of these approaches to assessing achievement are inherently flawed. Instead, there are experts who believe that objectives should be set for every child individually, with parents informed about what these goals are.
From there, small milestones should be broken down for a student to achieve gradually, allowing progress to be seen as the youngster continues through the academic year.
Many curriculums are currently undergoing radical change to incorporate the demand that employers have for computer literate staff. Instead of the key skills demanded of young people being an understanding of the sciences, reading, writing and arithmetic, there's also demand for application of IT through a concrete understanding of how spreadsheets, word processing software and presentation packages such as PowerPoint work.
Usually, to contrast one person's ability in a certain subject or skill while using formal assessments, their results will be contrasted with an average that has been taken school-wide, nationwide, or with a pool of results from similar children.
Of course, dependent on the educational institution, the approach taken to formal and informal assessments - not to mention the ratio to which both are used, will vary.
Some would argue that both of these approaches to assessing achievement are inherently flawed. Instead, there are experts who believe that objectives should be set for every child individually, with parents informed about what these goals are.
From there, small milestones should be broken down for a student to achieve gradually, allowing progress to be seen as the youngster continues through the academic year.
Many curriculums are currently undergoing radical change to incorporate the demand that employers have for computer literate staff. Instead of the key skills demanded of young people being an understanding of the sciences, reading, writing and arithmetic, there's also demand for application of IT through a concrete understanding of how spreadsheets, word processing software and presentation packages such as PowerPoint work.
