In order to know the meaning of the term evaluation criteria, it is necessary, first of all, to discover the etymological origin of the two main words that give it shape:
-Criteria, in the first place, derives from the Greek. Specifically, it emanates from “kriterion”, which can be translated as “norm that is established to know the truth” and which is the result of the sum of two components: the verb “krinein”, which is synonymous with “decide”, and the suffix “-io”, which is used to indicate “result”.
-Evaluation, secondly, has its origin in Latin. It means “establishing the price of something” and is the result of the sum of several components: the prefix “ex”, which means “outside”; the verb “valere”, which can be translated as “to be strong”; and the suffix “-cion”, which indicates “action and effect”.
A criterion is a guideline, a norm or a judgement. An evaluation, on the other hand, is an exam or a qualification process (which consists of assigning a value according to the qualities).
- Abbreviationfinder: Find definitions of English word – Industry. Commonly used abbreviations related to word are also included.
The evaluation criteria are applied in the educational field.
What are the evaluation criteria
The idea of evaluation criteria is used in the field of education to name the frame of reference taken by teachers when evaluating the academic performance of their students. These criteria refer to the knowledge that students must acquire and what they have to learn to do with that knowledge.
The evaluation criteria, therefore, focus on theory and practice. Each student must demonstrate in the evaluations that she has understood the contents and that he is in a position to apply them. The mastery of these two dimensions supposes the acquisition of aptitudes by the individual.
Depending on the evaluation criteria, a student passes or fails an exam.
An example
Take the case of the language subject. The evaluation criteria used by the teachers of a given course are aimed at students demonstrating their ability to understand a text, summarize it and describe it in their own words.
In this way, when taking an exam, the teachers offer a journalistic note of fifty lines to the children and ask them to summarize it in ten lines. They also indicate that they must describe the same event narrated by the journalist, but with different words. Once the students submit the exams, the teachers will apply the evaluation criteria to determine, according to what is evidenced, if each boy made the necessary merits to pass or not.
How Evaluation Criteria Are Determined
In addition to all of the above, we cannot overlook another series of relevant aspects of the evaluation criteria:
-When setting them, the skills to be developed must be taken into consideration.
-It is essential that they revolve around the most relevant learning, those that are considered to be essential for the student to be able to advance in the subject they deal with.
-It is also necessary to focus on dimensions, which are the aspects that shape the object of evaluation, subdimensions, which are different parts of the dimensions, and attributes. These are the items that shape the different subdimensions.
