Are informal assessments or formal assessments better for learners?

Question

Zippia Team · Accepted Answer

Informal assessments are less stressful for learners, but formal assessments are generally a better measure of how much has been learned. Neither one is truly better. A good instructor will make use of both informal assessments and formal assessments to judge their pupils' learning and progress.

It should be noted that there is a movement to get rid of tests and other forms of formal assessment entirely. At this point, it's unknown whether or not it'll succeed.

The notion is based on the belief that tests are a poor metric for measuring learning and how well someone understands a subject. At this point, not enough is known about learning to say one way or the other.