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What are The Disadvantages of Summative Assessment
With all of the benefits highlighted, there are a few drawbacks to consider before choosing for a summative review. A few of them are listed below.
- Individuals are demotivated: It is stated that summative evaluation inspires individuals to put in more effort for their academics. When the evidence for policy and practise information and a coordinating centre at the University of London were analysed, they discovered a persistent relationship between self-esteem and standardised assessments. Students who did poorly had reduced self-esteem, according to the findings. This, in turn, led them to put in less effort towards their studies and their future academic progress.
- Rectification is delayed: One of the primary disadvantages of summative assessment is that because it concentrates on output at the conclusion if there are any obstacles or challenges, the learning process at the end might be challenging. There is no way to recover because the findings are final. When learning is taken into account, this is not a true reflection.
- Disruptive: Because it is a single test at the end of the entire academic session, it makes practically everyone nervous and disruptive. They are frightened and fearful about the summative assessment.
- There is no cure: In a summative review, nothing is done to detect obstacles or issues ahead of time. Issues with instruction are not noticed until they become significant.
- Not accurate reflection of learning: When the summative evaluation is taken into account, it focuses mostly on the performance of the teachers as they teach to the test. For example, when any state-level test focuses mostly on analogies and anagrams, pupils are eager to focus on and practise such activities for hours. They redirect attention away from reading, writing, and vocabulary development in this manner. Overall, it is determined that summative evaluation is not flawless since even an exceptional student may be confronted with questions that may knock them down. The major cause behind this is that a student becomes apprehensive or tense due to exam pressure. As a result, learning requires reflection. Summative assessment is not thought to be the best method.
- Negative impact on pupils: Repeated practice tests reduce low-achieving students’ self-confidence and self-esteem. When summative evaluation outcomes are more obvious for students than for schools or authorities, they have a detrimental impact on low achievers. Low-achievers in secondary school may do worse since they are failing over time. It is also regarded as a stifling procedure for highly capable persons. Anxiety is another factor that contributes to the big bang exam, particularly among females, and contributes to the widening of the achievement difference. Summative evaluation favours extrinsic motivation, which means reacting to some form of reward, above intrinsic motivation, which is working for something they are interested in and want to work for.
- Problems with teaching and curriculum: Instructors and teachers focus on the test and diverge from curriculum and subject. In terms of instructional methodologies, there is the possibility of distortion. Another issue is that summative assessment questions may not be worded in the same way that formative evaluation questions are. Instructors and teachers may have to devote more time to summative evaluation, which may not truly improve students’ understanding. With all of this, teachers may use a didactic teaching approach that is neither ideal nor pleasant for many pupils.
- Reliability and validity: The assessment must be designed in such a way that it covers and reflects the entire topic as well as how the subject was taught. Tasks should also have improved consistency in terms of what is accessible and how they are designated internally and externally across different versions. Summative evaluations must focus on reliability and validity mistakes since they gauge students’ achievement.
- Bias: Summative judgments are seen to have restricted modes of expression, particularly standardised tests with a lot of multiple-choice questions for automated grading. This has the main disadvantage for many students, who may be non-native speakers with less knowledge of the language, students who face cultural barriers and may have difficulty understanding the questions, students with physical or learning disabilities, and students who perform poorly due to testing pressure.
