Curriculum Evaluation Models and Methods

Glatthorn, Boschee, Whitehead, Boschee, Curriculum Leadership, 3rd Edition
© 2012 SAGE Publications
Chapter 12
Curriculum Evaluation
Curriculum evaluation is an attempt to toss light on
two questions: Do planned courses, programs,
activities, and learning opportunities as developed
and organized actually produce desired results?
How can the curriculum offerings best be improved?

 Curriculum evaluation should be concerned with:
 Assessing the value of a program of studies
All the planned learning experiences over a multiyear
period for a given group of learners
 A field of study
All the planned learning experiences over a multiyear
period in a given discipline or area of study
 A course of study
All the planned learning experiences for a period of 1
year or less in a given field of study). It is the
assessment of the merit and worth of a program of
studies, a field of study, or a course of study.
Curriculum Evaluation

 Bradley’s Effectiveness Model – 10 key indicators
 Tyler’s Objectives-Centered Model
 Stufflebeam’s Context-Input-Process-Product
Model
 Scriven’s Goal-Free Model
 Stake’s Responsive Model
 Eisner’s Connoisseurship Model
 An Eclectic Approach
Evaluation Methods

Bradley’s Effectiveness Model
Vertical curriculum
continuity
Horizontal
curriculum
continuity
Instruction based
on curriculum
Curriculum priority
Broad involvement
Long range
planning
Decision-making
clarity
Positive human
relations
Theory-into-
practice approach
Planned change

Tyler’s Objectives-Centered Model
 Begin with the behavioral objectives that have
been determined.
 Identify the situations that will give the student the
opportunity to express the behavior embodied in
the objective and that evoke or encourage this
behavior.
 Select, modify, or construct suitable evaluation
instruments, and check the instruments for
objectivity, reliability, and validity.

 Use the instruments to obtain summarized or
appraised results
 Compare the results obtained from several
instruments in order to estimate the amount of
change taking place.
 Analyze the results in order to determine strengths
and weaknesses of the curriculum and to identify
possible explanations.
 Use the results to make the necessary modifications in
the curriculum. (as cited in Glatthorn, 1987, p.273).
Tyler’s Objectives-Centered Model

 Context evaluation
 Continuously assessing needs and problems in the
context to determine goals and objectives,
 Input evaluation
 Assesses alternative means for achieving those goals,
 Process evaluation
 Monitors the processes both to ensure that the means
are actually being implemented and to make the
necessary modifications, and
 Product evaluation
 Compares actual ends with intended ends and leads to a
series of recycling decisions.
Stufflebeam’s Context-Input-
Process-Product Model

 Focus on qualitative methods for evaluation,
the evaluation assesses the actual effects of
the program.
Scriven’s Goal-Free Model

 Based explicitly on the concerns of the
stakeholders
 Model moves through nine steps.
Stake’s Responsive Model

 Emphasizes qualitative appreciation
 Connoisseurship – the art of appreciation –
recognizing and appreciating through perceptual
memory, drawing from experience to appreciate
what is significant. It is the ability both to perceive
the particulars of educational life and to understand
how those particulars form part of a classroom
structure.
 Criticism – is an attempt to characterize and portray
the relevant qualities of education life – the rules, the
regularities, the underlying architecture.
Eisner’s Connoisseurship Model

 Congruence in current theories of evaluation
using common emphases with insights from
other models to develop a list of criteria for
evaluating curriculum.
An Eclectic Approach

1. Can be implemented without making moderate
demands upon district resources
2. Can be applied to all levels of the curriculum
3. Makes provisions for assessing all significant
aspects of curriculum
4. Makes distinctions between merit and worth
5. Is responsive
13 Criteria for a Curriculum Evaluation
Model

6. Is goal oriented
7. Is sensitive to and makes appropriate
provisions for assessing unintended effects
8. Attends to assessing formative aspects of
evaluation
9. Is sensitive to and makes provisions for
assessing the special context for the curriculum
Model, cont.

10. Is sensitive to and makes provisions for
assessing the aesthetic aspects of the
curriculum
11. Makes provisions for assessing opportunity cost
12. Uses both qualitative and quantitative methods
for gathering and analyzing data
13. Presents findings in reports responsive to the
special needs of several audiences
Model, cont.

 Challenges to program evaluation continues to be
basic awareness of the measurable benefits.
 Quality leadership is a key component in the
success of any evaluation process.
 Technology can support evaluation
Other issues facing evaluation

 PURPOSE – to identify strengths and
weaknesses to plan for improvements
 1. prepare for the evaluation
 2. assess the context
 3. Identify the evaluation issues
 4. Develop design
 5. Implement the evaluation design
Evaluating a Field of Study

Curriculum Evaluation Models and Methods

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