PURPOSE AND PLANNING FOR EVALUATIONPuja Shrivastav

What is Curriculum?• According to Wheeler (1967) curriculum means the

planned experiences offered to the learners under the guidance of the school.

• Tanner & Tanner (1975) defined it as the planned guided learning experience and intended learning out-comes formulated through a systematic reconstruction of knowledge and experiences under the auspices of the school for the learner’s continuous and willful growth in academic, personal & social competence.

What is Evaluation?• Evaluation is fundamentally concerned with deciding on

the value or worth wholeness of a learning process as well as the effectiveness with which it is being carried out.

• Curriculum evaluation refers to the process of studying the merit or worth of some aspect, or the whole of a curriculum.

Need of Evaluation• Evaluation is a tool which can be used to help teachers

judge whether a curriculum or instructional approach is being implemented as planned, and to assess the extent to which stated goals and objectives are being achieved.

It allows teachers to answer the questions: 

Are we doing for our students what we said we would? Are students learning what we set out to teach? How can we make improvements to the curriculum and/or teaching methods?

Curriculum Evaluation• Gay (1985) argues that the aim of curriculum evaluation is

to identify its weaknesses and strengths as well as problems encountered in implementation; to improve the curriculum development process; to determine the effectiveness of the curriculum and the returns on finance allocated.

• There are two levels of Curriculum Evaluation—Formative evaluation and Summative evaluation.

Formative and Summative Evaluation

Formative evaluation:• The term formative indicates that data

is gathered during the formation or development of the curriculum.

• Formative evaluation may include determining who needs the programme (eg. secondary school students), how great is the need (eg. students need to be taught ICT skills to keep pace with expansion of technology) and how to meet the need (eg. introduce a subject on ICT compulsory for all secondary schools students).

• In education, the aim of formative evaluation is usually to obtain information to improve a programme.

Summative evaluation:

• The term summative indicates that data is collected at the end of the implementation of the curriculum programme.

• Summative evaluation can occur just after new course materials have been implemented in full (i.e. evaluate the effectiveness of the programme), or several months to years after the materials have been implemented in full or taught completely. It is important to specify what questions you want answered by the evaluation and what decisions will be made as a result of the evaluation

• You may want to know whether the programme produced the desired outcomes.

Purpose of Evaluation

Of course, we know that sometimes we can have good instructors and good students, but without a valid curriculum, necessary skills to be successful in the workplace may not be learned.

(Contd.)

Purpose of Curriculum Evaluation• Education prepares future generations to take their due place in the society. It becomes essential that substandard educational goals, materials and methods of instruction are not retained but up-dated in consonance with the advances in social cultural and scientific field.• It is also important to ascertain how different educational institutions and situations interpret a given or prescribed curriculum.• Hence, the need for curriculum evaluation arises.• Curriculum evaluation monitors and reports on the quality of education.

(Contd.)

Purpose of Curriculum Evaluation• Cronbach (1963) distinguishes three types of decisions for

which evaluation is used.1. Course Improvement2. Decisions about individuals3. Administrative regulations

(Contd.)

1. Course Improvement : deciding what instructional material and methods are satisfactory and where changes are needed.2. Decisions about individuals : Identifying the needs of the pupil for the sale of planning of instruction and grouping, acquainting the pupil with his own deficiencies.3. Administrative regulations : Judging how good the school system is, how good individual teachers are.

(Contd.)

Purpose of Curriculum Evaluation

Purpose of Curriculum Evaluation• The goal of evaluation must be to answer questions of

selection, adoption, support and worth of educational materials and activities.

• It helps in identifying the necessary improvements to be made in content, teaching methods, learning experiences, educational facilities, staff-selection and development of educational objectives.

• It also serves the need of the policy makers, administrators and other members of the society for the information about the educational system.

Approaches to Evaluation• Two basic approaches to evaluation have been identified

viz. scientistic and the humanistic (Cronbach, 1982).• In the scientistic approach, decision about the educational

programme are made on the basis of efforts of learners. The data gathered is in the form of test scores of students, which are employed to compare student’s achievements. The decision about the programme is made on the basis of this comparison.

• In the humanistic approach, the evaluator uses data obtained from thick descriptions of actual events. Data is also obtained from interviews with the participants in the curriculum programme and is utilized for the purposes of evaluation.

The evaluation process should include factors associated with…• The learner• The curriculum• The instructor(s)• The availability of necessary facilities• Other aspects of the program that affect the delivery of

the curriculum in the system

Curriculum evaluation should include…• The overall program (list of courses, prerequisites, etc.)• Scope and sequence of content within each course• Curricular materials

Elements of curriculum evaluation…• Context-whether or not to offer the curriculum—focus,

goals, and objectives.• Input-what resources and strategies are used.• Process-what effect does the curriculum have on the

students.• Product-what effect has the curriculum had on former

students.

Phases of Curriculum Evaluation1. Aspects of the curriculum to be evaluated The total school system, a particular district, a particular grade level or a

particular subject. The objectives of the evaluation activity are clearly stated.2. Data Collection Identify the information to be collected and the tools for collecting the data

which may involve interviews, giving of questionnaires, tests, collection of documents and so forth. The evaluator also identifies the people from whom data is to be collected.

 3. Analysis of Information The data collected is analysed and presented in the form of tables and graphs.

Statistical tools are often used to compare significant differences and to establish correlation or relationship between variables.  

4. Reporting of Information Reports are written describing the findings and interpretation of the data. Based

on the findings, conclusion are made on the effectiveness of curriculum implementation efforts. Recommendations are made to reconsider certain aspects of the curriculum.

Techniques of Evaluation

A variety of techniques are employed. Observations, questionnaires, checklists, interviews, group discussions evaluation workshops and Delphi techniques are the major one.

a) Observation : It is related to curriculum transaction. Observation schedule helps the evaluator to focus his attention on the aspects of the process that are most relevant to his investigation. This method gains credibility when it contains both subjective and objective methods. Interviews and feed-back and other documentary evidences may supplement observations.

b) Questionnaire : It is used to obtain reaction of curriculum users namely pupils, teachers, administrators, parents and other educational workers concerning various aspects of prescribed curriculum are to be ascertained. (Contd.)

Techniques of Evaluation

c) Check-list : It can be used as a part of questionnaire and interview. It provides numbers of responses out of which most appropriate responses are to be checked by the respondent.

d) Interview : It is a basic technique of evaluation and for gathering information. It may be formal or informal in nature. The information required should be suitably defined and the presentation of questions should in no case betray and sort of bias the part of the interviewer.

(Contd.)

Techniques of Evaluation e) Workshops & Group discussion : In this technique,

experts are invited at one place to deliberate upon syllabi, materials etc; and to arrive at a consensus regarding the quality of the same. The materials may be evaluated against a set of criteria that might have been prepared by the evaluator.

f) Delphi Technique : A “Remote Conferencing” is employed instead of work-shop technique. It can be used at various stages of curriculum development. This technique is cost effective and provides an equal opportunity to all members of the group to express their individual views. Thank

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