Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using formative and summative assessments.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: Answer would ideally include: The advantage of using formative and summative assessments as sources of data in educational research studies is that they are typically another type of “existing” data--not at the school or district level but, rather, at the teacher or classroom level--in that they are routinely administered during the teaching–learning process. Therefore, depending on the nature of the study and the research questions, incorporating these sources of data can facilitate conducting the study and make it somewhat more practical, since designing data collection instruments specifically and only for a given research study is not always necessary. However, one disadvantage of using the data is the potential mismatch with the goals of the research study. Researchers must ensure that these instruments will provide data specifically required to answer the research questions stated at the outset of the study. Otherwise, the data--from the perspective of the research study--are potentially meaningless. This--along with other, similar issues--is central to establishing the validity and reliability of the instruments used to collect data, as well as of the resulting data themselves.