Evaluation, Change, and Inquiry

The final three domains close the loop. Evaluation judges whether a curriculum is working. Change acts on what evaluation reveals. Inquiry investigates the whole field so the knowledge keeps growing. Together they keep a curriculum from going stale.

Curriculum evaluation

Curriculum evaluation is an attempt to assess the worth of students and of educational practices, materials, or programs. It is not only a test of learners; it judges the teaching practices, the materials, and the program itself.

Evaluation can play three roles in the life of a curriculum. It can be a starting point that tells you where to begin, an end that tells you what was achieved, or a means for the continuous monitoring and renewal that keeps a curriculum current. Its focus can be as narrow as the students in one classroom or institution, or as wide as a whole program.

Traditionally, evaluation is done to check whether pre-specified goals were achieved by applying pre-specified means. In other words, it asks: did we reach the aims we set, using the methods we planned?

Flashcard

What does curriculum evaluation assess?

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Answer

The worth of students, practices, materials, and programs

It can act as a starting point, an end, or a means of continuous renewal, and its focus ranges from one classroom to a whole program. Traditionally it checks whether pre-set goals were met by pre-set means.

Curriculum change

Curriculum change is the umbrella term for revision, innovation, renewal, and improvement. Whenever a curriculum is reworked, that is change, whether the change is a small revision or a brand-new approach built on past experience.

Change does not happen well by accident. Doing it properly calls for several things at once:

1. Careful planning of exactly what will change, whether objectives, content, organization, or evaluation.
2. The involvement of all concerned, so the people affected are part of the change.
3. Analysis of supporting forces, the things that will help the change succeed.
4. Analysis of resisting forces, the things that will push back against it.
5. The development of both individuals and organizations, so people and institutions can carry the change.

All of this is aimed at one end: improving the curriculum. Change that skips these steps tends to stall, because the resisting forces were never understood and the people affected were never brought along.

Flashcard

What words does curriculum change cover, and what does it need?

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Answer

Revision, innovation, renewal, and improvement

Done well, change needs careful planning, the involvement of all concerned, and analysis of the forces supporting and resisting it, all aimed at improving the curriculum.

Curriculum inquiry

Curriculum inquiry and curriculum research are often used to mean the same thing, but inquiry is given the broader meaning. Research tends to be the narrower term, observing carefully but perhaps not as closely or as fully as inquiry does.

Inquiry has a logical positivist and objectivist orientation. It leans on actual experimentation: a teacher teaches the content as organized, evaluates learners by a set method, and observes whether the objectives were achieved. Studying that process to learn from it is inquiry. The broader scope is what separates it from plain research.

Flashcard

What orientation does curriculum inquiry take?

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Answer

A logical positivist and objectivist one, using experimentation

Inquiry overlaps with research but is broader. It studies the teaching-and-evaluating process through actual experimentation to learn whether objectives were achieved.