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Evaluation as a Learning Process for Teachers and School Organizations: Moving From a Judgmental to an Empowerment Model
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| Presenter(s):
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| YunHuo Cui,
East China Normal University,
cuiyunhuo@vip.163.com
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| XueMei Xia,
East China Normal University,
xiaxuemei1120@gmail.com
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| Abstract:
Evaluation conducted by evaluators remains mostly to be judgmental to schools and teachers. How to make evaluation a learning process for teachers and school organizations is still a challenge. In this session, we will describe the steps, the mechanisms, and the tools that help us move from a judgmental to an empowerment model. We will discuss the evidence of the change of teachers' and principle's mental models towards evaluation. The value of this evaluation is significant because that it not only describes the implementation strategy in the Chinese context, but also points out the advantages and weaknesses when it works as a learning process to help individual and school organization engage in the singe-loop learning and the double-loop learning.
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Reflections on Empowerment Evaluations in South Africa 2004-7
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| Presenter(s):
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| Ray Basson,
University of the Witwatersrand,
raymond.basson@wits.ac.za
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| Abstract:
This paper reflects on 4 empowerment evaluations to this end. Each was completed in Africa, South Africa particularly, for degrees registered at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All attempted to use the approach to increase sustainability of curriculum reform [in implementing inclusion, art curriculum design, values education, hospice care], were informed by the principle of social justice, and asked in different ways how the approach needs adapting for use here. Each evaluation found, one, that drawing evaluees--particularly those typically marginalized--into the process seemed to increase at the micro-level sustainability in the short term, that evaluation effects seemed uneven influencing individuals differently, and prompted positive evaluee responses to the process. Two, each found that drawing those on the margins into the evaluation to be trained and 'drive' the process both excited evaluees and assisted them unlearn their experience of evaluation namely that their--the 'emic--view counts. And three, the use of this approach here outside its country of origin suggests, amongst others, the evaluators need to be more directive in the evaluation than perhaps originally intended, and to think more closely on principles informing evaluation to realize the intentions of macro and micro reform. More surprising in a country which discounts the importance of evaluation research is the uptake of this approach in the face of the demand of 'etic' techniques, data, and adjudications presently in vogue in implementing national curriculum reform. .
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Lesson Study: Professional Development for Empowering Teachers and Improving Classroom Practices
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| Presenter(s):
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| Robin Smith,
Florida State University,
smith@bio.fsu.edu
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| Abstract:
In the United States, lesson study is an emerging form of ongoing, teacher-led professional development in K-12 schools. Developed in Japan over fifty years ago, lesson study involves a group of teachers collaboratively planning and observing a lesson for evidence of student learning. Although teachers' observations focus on the suitability of the lesson's instructional strategies for facilitating student learning, improving overall practice is the goal of the process. Lesson study provided a group of elementary teachers with a process for evaluating their practice in a collegial setting to assess their lessons for evidence that desired outcomes were achieved. The paper will present preliminary findings and interpretations of lesson study as implemented in an elementary school. The study attempted to qualitatively evaluate whether Japanese lesson study enabled the participating teachers to determine the course of their own professional growth through an approach that is similar to conducting an empowerment evaluation.
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Creating a Sense of Community Through Empowerment Evaluation of an Academic Program
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| Presenter(s):
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| Asil Ozdogru,
University at Albany,
ao7726@albany.edu
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| Abstract:
In the evaluation of an academic program, students and faculty, as major groups of stakeholders, can perform various phases of evaluation. This study demonstrates a case example of a graduate program utilizing its constituents in the planning and implementation steps of its evaluation. The program accomplished a valid and responsive evaluation as a result of the collaborative project between students and faculty. Triangulation of different perspectives and experiences provided a rich array of information in the identification of major program components, development of essential outcome measures, and interpretation of evaluation results. This collaborative approach also resulted in the strengthening of sense of community among program members by enhancing community knowledge and ownership. Findings and experiences from this participatory evaluation process will be shared to exemplify the lessons learned and best practices for academic program evaluation from an empowerment perspective.
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