The Evaluation and Its Importance in Education

 Theoretical Frameworks of Evaluation in Education

 

Evaluation in Education

 

The main theoretical framework regarding evaluation in educational contexts. This is intended to contribute to the reflection and positioning of individuals responsible for designing and implementing evaluations in the educational field. The set of theoretical frameworks proposed is heterogeneous,  in the sense that they include the position and use of complex evaluations and systems of evaluation, as well as the design of certain elements of these evaluations, which are also identified in other theoretical frameworks. What is interesting and the reason for including these theoretical frameworks in those considered classical or paradigmatic is that most of them consider the unique and differentiated elements of the educational domain, that is, of the educational “object” and its transformation in the learning and development of the educational professional.

 

The educational evaluation and its importance

 

     The permanent concern in most educational systems with the formal and substantive evaluation of academic performance, with the main purpose of qualifying new admissions, certifying quatifications, and contributing to the continuous demonstration of fairness and efficacy in the performance of each sub-sector of the system was, and still is, the central reason for the spread of evaluations, from school to higher education. Each evaluator, evaluating entity, educational entity responsible for the evaluation, general or specific evaluation models of its own establishment, the technical studies and theoretical approaches to evaluation are profuse and frequent, assuming , seemingly, a certain coherence and articulation of the same with each other and diverse elements of the theory and practice of education, more or less dependent, more or less influenced, more or less determinant. The educational evaluation in some countries and in several publications and official documents has gradually been addressed, explicitly, recognizing the existence of particularities, characteristics and sensitivities that distinguish it from the evaluation of other domains.

 

The use of Evaluation by Behaviorist Approach

 

     The Behaviorist Approach, which is conceived of as including not only the early psychology but also all applications of learning principles in the field of education, attaches great importance to practical or empirical knowledge and a modification of the learning requirements to place greater emphasis on the methods for controlling students’ behavior. This is based on the assumption that modifications can be carried our knowing that variables surrounding the student are being manipulated. Therefore, if human behaviour changes and adapts in response to certain reinforcements, those stimuli will have a permanent effect. The behaviorist has the necessary tools to evaluate himself to the extent that it enables him to apply these reinforcements. Teachers have to test and and verify which of their students carry out activities or submit reinforcements to achieve, according to their opinion, effective or meaningful learning. If the responses are correct, behaviorists have  been able to achieve primary successes in this process; and if students have not been able to achieve the desired progress, a reanalysis of the responses is necessary. Although, if this reanalysis is valid and the student does not show progress, it is possible that the teacher has committed an error, for example did not use the reinforcement.

 

     The importance of periodic controls and their implications for the educational process, together with their consequences at the methodological level, is valued because of the possibility of grading with greater fidelity to the actual learning levels attained by the student. Its functions are clearly defined. According to the various behaviorist interpretations, the control of the student´s activity always pursues practical results, whether these are basic or instrumental, on a cognitive, emotional or behavioral level. The close relationship that exists between learning and changes in behavior is evident in such a way that controlling or evaluating learning represents an intrinsic need for constitute the most characteristic contribution of the behaviorist interpretation to the organization and management of the process of teaching and learning. This is why most evaluation methods are linked in a direct way to the theories of learning that have a larger behaviorist content, even if their use has been extended thanks to the accumulated scientific knowledge of other psychological theories.   

 

Cognitive Approach

 

     In this approach, the students are evaluated at the end of the course on how they score in standard tests of intelligence or examinations, and this approach is used to measure the learning of individuals . However, tests of intelligence generally measure the student’s ability to manipulate symbols. It is believed that intelligence is the prime factor, and tests of intelligence are used to evaluate the quality and worth of learning obtained at school for learning abilities. Therefore, if the learning situation in the school is organized in such a way as to elicit both the interest and the faculties of the individual, a few questions are maintained in the form of vocational guidance tests or counseling to direct the individual to choose the right conduct in life. The negative aspect of this approach is that the intelligence test can measure only a few attributes that contribute to learning the meaning of ramifications, imagery, level of assimilation, and association, which could be equally important.

 

     The limitation is that the test cannot elaborate on the processes by which the person has arrived at the final conclusions. In the case of scholastic aptitude tests, they are only a special case of ability tests. Aptitude is the potential ability that one possesses in tendency in development, which is earnmarked before the ability materials and a particular field of service or is an ingrained property. A test of art aptitude does not indicate whether the student will become a good artist in attitude, personality, self-concept, and curiosity, but such tests are standardized for use in direction to school. Thus, the group behavior and the third mode of educational testing, inclusive of all organizations and involving the entire school, try to find out measures of attainment of purpose and objectives, which are faulty in education - including normative evaluation, are limited. Only tools for formative and summative evaluation can be used.

 

Constructivist Approach

 

     Philosophically, this approach is based on the assumption that students construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world by redefining generalizations and solving authentic problems that they face in the classroom. The word “authentic” means that we should present to the students the essential problems of the discipline, the intersection of the discipline with unsolved problems, questions and possibilities, unfinished frameworks for understanding and fateful choices in the determination of product or answer. The teacher plays a key role as a guide in attempting to facilitate the knowledge constriction process of the students by revealing the most important conceptual lenses of the disciplines that allow them to construct their own understanding of the concepts they are investigating. The teacher’s role is not to provide students with the “correct” answer to a scientific question, bur rather to facilitate the processes of inquiry by guiding students to relevant materials and asking them deeper and more interesting questions.

 

Types of Evaluation in Education

 

Global Evaluation

 

     The main function of global evaluation is to determine the degree of achievement of the purpose or objectives that the education system recognizes. We refer to objectives designed at  different levels of the educational system. They are general objectives that leave some flexibility regarding the purposes worked on though the education system. The global evaluation is carried our with regard to all the objectives pursued by the education system, and its main purpose is not to answer the question of who is better or worse, or who is inferior or superior, but to respond to whether the system as a whole can be considered as providing valuable service to society. The answer to this question should provide guidance on the following: on the level of social investment to be attributed to education on its mission, aim and objectives.

 

Internal Evaluation

      The internal evaluation is similar to the global evaluation, but must focus on the establishment of headquarters. Here, internal and global can be compared to the sector evaluation. As a general rule, the higher the mark of the parties and the sectors the higher the mark of the IMO. Generally speaking, the evaluation of a given level can be monitored by sector evaluation. The sector evaluation arms, to facilitate a more enlightened sector management, evaluating the number of layers of functioning that can be internalized from the center.

 

Formative Evaluation 

      Formative assessment involves comparing actual performance against a set of standard in such a way that meaningful judgments can be made on performance and standards-based improvements can be made. This is an ongoing process. The conceptual disadvantage is that formative evaluation is only a part of evaluation, but its misportrayed as being an all-encompassing concept. It is useful to distinguish between a theory of formative assessment and a structure for implementing that theory, although this occurs somewhat arbitrarily.

 

     The four assumptions underlying a theory of formative assessment are as follows. Students are formed and reformed as a consequence of suggestions made in the course of formative assessment. Meaningful judgments can be made about quality of the student as, under normal circumstances, time is not a contrasting factor. The teacher is the prime assessor, although peer and student self-assessment play significant supporting roles. It is a powerful teaching force. Textbooks are generally considered formative in nature and teaching efficacy is commonplace even as low-level monitoring is taking place. Evocative examples of formative assessment include discussions, questions, or position papers.

 

Summative Evaluation

    This type of evaluation occurs after a learning experience has been completed. Its objective is to measure student progress, compare learning objectives with what they have actually learned, and compare objectives among study or learning areas, such as the math teacher’s objectives with those of the natural sciences.

 

     With consistent objectives, different methods and materials should be used. Evaluation should be different, so it is very important to characterize what is unique or distinguishing about evaluation in different school subjects, while at the same time, its conception should be grounded in a common methodological and qualitative vision for all subjects. This is only possible by taking a comprehensive view and foregoing such conceptions as subjectivism and scholastic formation, which subordinate learning to the hierarchy of disciplines.

 

     Grades and punishments should not be the primary form of feedback for students, but rather a means of motivating them to learn. The communicative role of the grade and the scientific management aspect of grade keeping should not be ignored, because in the eyes of some judges, grades alone are worth more than the evidence that makes them possible. From another point of view, the form of assessment should be compatible with the curriculum objectives. For instance, if the curriculum is structured around a broad group of objectives at the expense of cognitive abilities and content, it makes little sense to apply high-stakes tests in confined spaces. Teachers should pay close attention to the characteristics of the assessment instruments and their levels of complexity in order to adjust the degree of difficulty to the cognitive level of learning.  

 

Diagnostic Evaluation

 

As uncertain as its origins and nor far away from the same dynamic of the education system, which includes it in its executive legislation, diagnostic evaluation, also claims the right to have a more precise definition. Since the phrase implies a criterion for distinction - evaluation criterion- which can serve to distinguish between diagnosis and other types of evaluation, it is absolutely necessary to specify its meaning. However, one should not ignore that the choice of the division “types of evaluation” contains an excessive simplifying intention that does not include the validity and propriety of their paring. The division between the types of evaluation, as with any division, is made not only to discover how things are but also for the convenience of those who are interested in clarity and precision.

 

        Data used to generate diagnostic decisions should be separated from those used for measures of predictions. In the case of strings of data used to perform the predictions, they should not be utilized to justify the diagnostic decision.it is obvious that clinical evaluations allow this type of decision. It is not the same with diagnostic scales. Yet the concept of diagnosis speculation is applicable without dichotomous division in all scales, the scores of which are given in a vast range of possible real values because these scales have no threshold effect. 

 

The Role of Evaluation in improving Teaching and Learning

 

     Why is evaluation necessary in the whole teaching process, and why does it prove to be so difficult to establish in practice? The main function of evaluation is to provide teachers with an objective and reliable method for assessing their teaching, using information that is already available in the classroom, gained from the normal activity of teaching. The alternative to such method is for the  teachers themselves to create that information in a form that will enable them to make a link between their teaching and the achievement of their learners. Unfortunately, the teachers are not research workers; they have neither the time nor the skills to do this. It is true that when the evaluation has been carried out on the activity of students in the examination room or during their use of a computer, and the results are available, the teachers will find it easy to integrate them immediately into the feedback processes that are already a part of their normal teaching practice.

 

     It is also important to realize that students exposed to different interpretations and viewpoints of the same subject matter become better learners. The interpretive freedom of a generation of teachers and students emerges from a continuous, self-supporting dialectic that is the lifeblood of a successful educational encounter. That is why any attempt to reduce or to codify this freedom is always fraught with danger. At the same time, however, we are aware that simply encouraging such interpretive freedom can serve only to perpetuate existing inequalities between educational systems and their individual institutions. The only way to overcome these inequalities is for universities and colleges to encourage the development of staff who can and will assume responsibilities for their teaching by measuring their activities and identifying areas for development.

 

 

Challenges and Limitations of Educational Evaluation

 

     Numerous challenges and limitations have been attributed to and continue to pose problems for most educational evaluation studies. These challenges and limitations encountered in bringing together both worlds of external and internal educational evaluation processes, such as policy goals on one hand and the contexts within which the teaching and learning processes in schools take place. A more comprehensive picture can emerge from this mixture, as well as the learning objectives of schools in the education process. Major challenges and limitations that hinder realizing these have been discussed.

 

     These include challenges of preparing teachers and students for standardized tests, rewards attached to tests scores, the influence of support from different interest groups of shaping decisions about schooling, limitations of standardized tests, problems of uniform interpretation of what is measured by standardized tests, and the dominance of numbers in presenting results. There is a brief criticism of challenges and limitations, arguing that the two interacting worlds in the evaluation of learning are not only different but often operate in complete isolation from each other. While policy and central levels of educational management are mainly concerned with external evaluation, are often limited within this context on a daily basis, which is more relevant to school-level actors and school practitioners in different ways from the policy and central levels of educational management.

   

Innovations and Trends in Educational Evaluation

 

     The part reflects some of the innovative evaluation thinking in recent years has emerged in various areas of educational discussion, such as open or flexible learning, distance learning, individualized learning, self-instructional materials, and elementary and secondary education. Some mainstream evaluation has seen a movement towards the development of subjective testing measures in student performance and range of other performance-based measures, including student portfolios of work. Open-ended items, projects, and performance assessment in areas of critical thinking. Critical evaluators, full hope or reform, are confronted with significant number of challenges as they seek to bring about significant, sustained change in educational practices. It is risky to ignore such challenges or to believe they will disappear over time.

 

     At times, they appear overwhelming, and the critical evaluators can only hope, in the long run, and after much struggle and exertion, to have some effect, however limited. A range of innovations and new trends at different levels is presented, some at the abstract level of broad educational goals or program evaluation, and some more practical and application-oriented in a variety of areas. Some issues related to such innovations and the implications of using or adopting these new ideas. Some issues related to such innovations and the implications of using or adopting these new ideas for the future of educational evaluation are also discussed. Innovations and trends are found to be interesting, challenging, and evoke a sense of intellectual curiosity. They represent a variety of evaluation types and range of professional standpoints and perspectives.

 

 

 Conclusion

 

In Conclusion, after reading the history of evaluation I can see that as the approaches changed during time, the evaluation also change, but it is more important to understand that the evaluation should not be only in order to have a grade and pass or not pass depending on a test.

 

There are different ways of evaluations, and for me the evaluation should be constant, and we should analyze the evaluations in order to see what the students have learned, what  they have not learned; then we could reinforce the material.

 

That is why, I think the evaluation affects not only the student, but also the teacher and the way the teacher is giving the class,  

References

  

Eidell, T. L., & Klebe, J. A. (1968). Annotated Bibliography on the Evaluation  of Educational         Programs.

 

 

Easton, P. B. (2014). Documenting the evolution of the field: Reflections on  the 2013                 comparative education review bibliography. Comparative  Education Review, 58(4), 555-574.

 

 

Henry, M. M. (1973). Methodology in comparative education: An annotated              bibliography. Comparative education review, 17(2), 231-244.

 

 

Wildemuth, B. M. (1981). A Bibliography to Accompany the Joint Committee's  Standards on         Educational Evaluation.