Diagnostic Assessment

Diagnostic Assessment takes place at the very beginning of a lesson or educational activity. It is conducted for the purpose of inquiring about the ability and capacity of students for a particular lesson or educational activity. It is mainly for the guidance of a teacher. It tells the teacher whether his students are capable of learning the intended lesson or activity or not. It assists the teacher in understanding the current learning/skills position of his students. It provides him a starting point for his lesson. It enables him to choose the right instructional strategy for a particular lesson or educational activity. Pretests on skills and contents, brief discussion with the students on the intended topic or activity, short interview of the students by the teacher before the commencement of a lesson or educational activity, are the main forms of diagnostic assessment. Though diagnostic assessment is not a precondition for the promotion and grading of students, yet it helps a teacher a lot in planning his lesson before actually engaging his students in the learning process. In short, the concept of diagnostic assessment, in education, can better be understood by analogy with medical assessment, in which a doctor first examines the patient carefully, takes his necessary tests and then prescribes him medicines accordingly. The other two types of assessment are:
Formative Assessment
Summative Assessment

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Educational Assessment

 Assessment means looking for the presence or absence, to some degree, of desired learning objectives in a student being assessed. It tells us whether the desired learning objectives of a particular educational course or discipline are successfully achieved or not.

Assessment works at both ends. On the one hand it informs the students of their learning or skills deficiencies; provides them the chance to think and re-think about their shortcomings; and to improve their skills and abilities in future. While on the other hand, It informs a teacher or an educator about the success or failure of his teaching or instructional strategy. It tells him/her how much he/she is successful in effectively transferring a particular skills, idea or concepts to his/her students. It helps him/her in choosing the most effective teaching method or instructional strategy for teaching a particular skill or discipline. Moreover, it gives useful information to the educational policy makers and administrators.

Assessment is objectives oriented. Since its main purpose is to look for the desired learning  objectives or goals of a particular educational program or activity in the students. There are mainly three types of assessment which are often used in education. They are given as under:

Diagnostic Assessment

Formative Assessment

Summative Assessment

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