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Putting Context in Context
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| Presenter(s):
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| A Rae Clementz,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
clementz@uiuc.edu
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| Abstract:
In its broadest sense, context can include any detail that helps to make comprehensible the meanings of words, actions, events, and even objects we experience. In evaluation, these often include demographic or economic details, social and political dynamics, cultural norms, even structural and geographical features. Sensitivity to nuances in context often differentiates truly insightful evaluations from those that are not. Despite its importance in our work, context itself is a fluid, relativistic, and confounded construct. Context is influenced by what is being looked at, who is looking, and the purpose for looking. This paper takes up questions like:
• What matters about context?
• In what ways does context matter?
• How much context is too much or not enough?
• What are valid ways of representing context?
in an attempt to put the notion of context, at least as it is used in evaluation, into context.
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Measuring Fidelity of Implementation of a Coach-based Professional Development Model
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| Presenter(s):
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| Tara Pearsall,
University of South Carolina,
tmcpearsall@yahoo.com
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| Ching Ching Yap,
University of South Carolina,
ccyap@gwm.sc.edu
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| Ashlee Lewis,
University of South Carolina,
ashwee301@hotmail.com
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| Abstract:
Assessing fidelity of implementation through systematic monitoring helps program developers and evaluators gain an understanding of how the quality of program implementation can affect the outcomes of professional development (PD) programs. Examination of program implementation quality allows program developers to determine how changes in implementation may affect a programs success or failure. To assess fidelity of implementation of a coach-based, 12-week PD program, evaluators systematically documented training sessions and developed measures to quantify the fidelity of those training sessions. The measures created enabled evaluators to gain detailed information regarding weekly fidelity through examination of the activity ratio as well as overall fidelity through examination of a fidelity index. With the information gained from the fidelity measures, program developers, in the field of education and beyond, can evaluate the success of their programs by determining whether outcomes reflect the PD model, the fidelity of implementation, or both.
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