Post date: Apr 1, 2014 10:48:50 AM
IDOKO, DOMINIC UKAH
BSU/VTE/M.SC/12/3743
Seminar III Presentation (Question and Answers).
Question 1: What Principles Best define Curriculum Evaluation in VTE.
The principle that best define curriculum evaluation should be concerned with assessing both merit and worth, curriculum evaluation is an attempt to toss light on two question. Do planned courses, programmes, activities and learning opportunities as developed and organized, curriculum evaluation should be concerned with assessing the value of program of study that all the planned learning experiences over a multiyear period for a given group of learner, field of study all the planned learning experiences over a multiyear period in a given discipline or area of study, and a course of study all the planned learning experiences for period of 1 year or less in a given field of study. All three levels of curriculum work are important. Substantive differences of scope exist between evaluating a field of study and a course of study.
The foregoing analysis yield this stipulative definition of curriculum evaluation as assessment of merit and worth of a program of studies, a field of study or a course of study.
Question 2: What Curriculum Evaluation Model are Most effective for TVET
Tyler’s objectives – centered model.
Bradley’s effectiveness model
Scriven’s Goal Free Model.
Stufflebeam’s context, input, process, product model.
Question 3: What Criteria should be used to develop a curriculum evaluation model.
An effective curriculum evaluation model does the following:
1. Can be implemented without making inordinate demands upon district resources in TVET.
2. Can be applied to all level of curriculum in TVET programs of study, field of study, courses of study.
3. Makes provisions for assessing all significant aspects of curriculum in TVET – the written, the taught, the supported, the tested and the learned curricula.
4. Makes useful distinction between merit (intrinsic value) and worth (the value for a given context).
5. Is responsive to the special concerns of district stakeholders and is able to provide them with the data they need for decision making in TVET.
6. Is goal oriented, emphasing objectives and outcomes in TVET curriculum.
7. Is sensitive to and makes appropriate provision for assessing unintend effects in vocational technical curriculum.
8. Pays due attention to and makes provisions for assessing formative aspects of evaluation in TVET.
9. Is sensitive to an makes provision for assessing the aesthetic or qualitative aspects of the curriculum in VTE.
10. Is sensitive to and makes provision for assessing the special context for the curriculum in TVET.
11. Makes provision for assessing opportunity cost- the opportunities lost by those studying this curriculum in TVET.
12. Uses both quantitative and qualitative methods for gathering and analyzing data.
13. Presents findings in reports responsive to the special needs of several audiences in VTE.
Question 4: How can learning experiences be organized for effective instruction.
How can learning experiences be organized for effective instruction in TVET.
(1) Goals in TVET curriculum.
(2) Scope and sequence of level objectives in TVET
(3) Written course Guides in TVET
(4) Time
(5) Material
(6) Staff development.
Question 6: How can a field of study be evaluated?
The following process can be use in field of study evaluation. The process of evaluating a field of study includes five important phases and stages used, preparing for the evaluation, assessing the context, identifying the evaluation issues, developing the evaluation design, and implementing the evaluation design.
STAGE ONE
Preparing for the Evaluation
Preparations for the evaluation include three major steps:
Setting the project parameters selecting the project director and the evaluation task force, and preparing the evaluation documents. In settingthe project parameters, district administrators in consultation with the school board should determine both the purpose and the limits of the project. They should, first of all, be clear about the central purpose of the review, because purpose will affect both issues to be examined and methods to be used. In identifying the limits of the project, they should develop answers to the following.
Questions:
(1) How much time will be allocated and by what date should the evaluation be completed?
(2) What human, fiscal and material resources will be provided?
(3) What fields will be evaluated?
(4) What constituencies will be asked for input? Specially, will parents, community representative, and students be involved?
With those parameter set in form of question, the project director and evaluation task force should be selected, the project director should be a consultant or a member of the district staff who has considerable technical expertise in TVET curriculum evaluation. The task force should function as an advisory and planning group, making recommendations to and monitoring the performance of the project director.
It should probably includes a total of 10 to 20 individuals depending on the size of the district and have adequate representation from these constituencies: School board, school administrators, teacher in VTE and other faculty members and parents and community organizations. If administrators wish and if it is felt that their input can be useful, technical college vocational centers and secondary students can be included.
(1) A statement of the curriculum goal for that field (TVET)
(2) A comprehensive description of the community and the student body.
(3) A list of all required courses in the field with time allocations and brief descriptions of each course in TVET.
(4) A list of all elective courses in the field, including time allocations, course descriptions and most recent enrollments figures.
(5) A random selection of student schedules in (TVET).
(6) Syllabi or course guides for all courses offered.
(7) Faculty schedules, showing class enrollments.
Other materials, of course, will be required as the review gets under way, but the above listed materials are important at the outset.
STAGE TWO
Assessing the context
The next stage in a comprehensive evaluation of a field of study is to assess the context. While this stage is obviously of critical importance for an outside evaluator. It is also essential in district – directed projects. The context assessment stage enables the evaluators to identify both the salient aspects of the educational environment that impinge on the field of studies and the critical needs of the learners. In assessing the context, the evaluators typically should seek answers to the following questions.
(1) What are the prevailing attitudes, values and expectations of the community?
(2) What significant aspects of the school district impinge on the field of study: size, leadership, organizational structure fecal resources?
(3) What are the special characteristics of school facilities that impinge on or constrain this field of study.
(4) What are the special characteristics of the student body: Scholastic aptitude.
(5) What are the special characteristic of the faulty: experience, educational values overall competence, educational background?
(6) What is special about the school organization: nature of leadership, organizational structure.
The context assessment should result in a report that calls attention to the salient aspect affecting the field of study and identifies the special need of the learners.
STAGE THREE
Identifying the Evaluation Issues.
The next step in the process is to identify the evaluation issues, to be sure that the evaluation is sensitive to the special concern of the stakeholders and will provide the information needed. Here the distinction between the several aspect of the curriculum are essential: The written, the supported, the taught, the tested and the learned curricula all subsume quite different assessment issues.
Also, each of these five must be assessed if the result are to be all valid. In too many curriculum evaluations, the team evaluates only the written curriculum (the official course guides) and the learned curriculum in TVET (the results on achievement tested. No valid inferences can be drawn from such an assessment, because the other three important components have been ignored. Suppose, for example, that the students in a particular district do not perform well on measures of critical thinking in social studies, even though district guides include such units. District administrators cannot be sure about the cause of the problem. It might well be that teachers have chosen not to teach TVET curriculum those unit because they lack the training and materials necessary only a comprehensive assessment can yield the information needed to make improvement.
These five components subsum more than 50 different issues obviously not all these issues will be used in every evaluation. Here, it is essential for the evaluation team to identify issues by surveying and interviewing stakeholders. This list of issues can be used to survey such constituencies as board members, school administrators faulty and parents using a form similar to the one mentions the responses can then be analyzed to determine which issues should be evaluated given the constraints previously identified. The surveys, of course, should be supplemented with interviews of key individuals to provide supplementary data.
STAGE FOUR
Developing the Evaluation Design
With the evaluation issues identified, the project director and the task should cooperatively develop the evaluation design one historical and yet useful framework for such a design was proposed by worthen (1981) for each evaluation question (or evaluation issue, to use the terminology employed here). The information required, the sources of information, and the methods for collecting the information thus in an example used by worthen. If the evaluation proposes to answer the question, do students attitude demonstrate that the curriculum is producing the desired results, the attitudes of students with regard to the values and concepts taught constitute the information required. Students are the source of information and the method employed might include a comparative design using attitude scales and simulated situations requiring an attitudinal responses.
In identifying the methods for collecting information, evaluators should be certain to include qualitative approaches. As noted current evaluation theory given strong emphasis to such qualitative methods as interviews and observation in assessing curriculum impact.
Those decision about the issues, the information required the sources of information, and the methods for collecting information – should form the basis of a detailed evaluation plan, which would also include the specific tasks to be undertaken, the names of those responsible for each task, and the deadline for accomplishing the task.
Question 5: How can the effectiveness of learning experiences in TVET be evaluated.
The following can be used in evaluating effectiveness of learning experience in TVET.
(1) Setting goals and indicators
(2) Identifying target population
(3) Evaluation centres.
(4) Regional technology training centres.
Setting Goals and Indicators
The evaluation and assessment process must be linked back to the original mission statement and object the (TVET) district. Indicator of successful curriculum integration for the purposes of evaluation should be established during the early planning stages of the TVET program.
Identifying Target Population
Successful evaluation and assessment procedures should focus on targeting specific external and internal population groups parent and community represent external groups.
Trustee, administrators, teachers and students represent internal target groups. Data collected needs to focus specifically on these targeted area and how they relate to school and TVET curriculum.
Evaluation Centres
The national study for school evaluation, located in the area of studies provides a wealth of information on technology evaluation and assessment in TVET colleges.
Regional Technology Training Centre: The regional educational laboratory and other regional technology centres across the country providing information of best practice involving assessment and evaluation. They also provide information through conferences and workshops on evaluation strategies or way of carrying out evaluation.
They must understand that curriculum improvement and instructional improvement are interconnected and that a change in our area will probably elicit a change in another area. Problems and concerns can cloud issues at hand, making evaluation an important tool with higher quality and more detailed information at our disposal curriculum leaders will be able to focus more on how technology can help teachers with student achievement in the future.
Question 7: How can effective teaching in TVET be identified
According to Pam Homan (2003) he was able to identify effective teaching through teachers whose students always scored higher on the standardized tests administered by the school district and students whose students performed below expectations on the same test, and other district administrator were able to identify effective instruction as the major contributing factor in student achievement.