Conceptualizing Learning Evaluation in Elementary Education: An Integrative Review of Evaluation Objects, Evaluators, and Functions

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze and synthesize conceptualizations of the objects and subjects/evaluators of learning evaluation in elementary education and to identify the relationships among evaluation objects, evaluators, evaluation functions, and the use of evaluation results. An integrative literature review was conducted on publications issued between 2015 and 2025. Searches of Google Scholar, Scopus, and ERIC, conducted from 10 to 15 January 2026, identified 452 records; following duplicate removal and screening, 26 studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in the final thematic synthesis. Five themes emerged: an emphasis on student achievement (17/26; 65.4%), limited use of evaluation for instructional reflection (14/26; 53.8%), underrepresentation of affective and psychomotor dimensions (13/26; 50.0%), movement toward authentic and participatory evaluation (11/26; 42.3%), and ambiguity among evaluators, evaluatees, and objects of evaluation (9/26; 34.6%). The findings indicate that the reviewed literature, rather than the present study directly assessing teachers, more frequently portrays evaluation as oriented toward student outcomes than toward reflective and instructional-improvement functions. Conceptually, the synthesis highlights the need to distinguish the evaluator as the actor conducting the evaluation, the evaluatee as the individual or unit being evaluated, the object of evaluation as the aspect being assessed, and the evaluation function as encompassing judgment, feedback, reflection, and decision-making. The findings also suggest an emerging movement toward authentic and participatory evaluation, although this orientation was not dominant across the corpus. The review is limited by its coverage of three databases, the inclusion of only Indonesian- and English-language publications, and terminological heterogeneity across sources; therefore, future studies should empirically validate the proposed framework through teacher interviews, classroom observations, or surveys.