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Session Title: Photography Enhances Evaluation Processes and the Study's Usability
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Panel Session 310 to be held in Centennial Section G on Thursday, Nov 6, 1:40 PM to 3:10 PM
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Sponsored by the Extension Education Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Nancy Grudens-Schuck,
Iowa State University,
ngs@iastate.edu
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| Abstract:
Photography was integrated into two federal grant evaluations:
1. A National Science Foundation (NSF) grant tested a field-based inquiry-focused geoscience course for pre-service teachers. Quantitative pre/post research instruments tested knowledge and skills gained, and attitudes and self-efficacy changed. Qualitative processes explored the impact on students' (a) thinking about the inquiry process and (b) desire, as future teachers, to integrate inquiry-based learning processes into geoscience lessons.
2. Three Federal grants created a 10-year partnership between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Technological University of Tajikistan to develop a Textiles Museum and Entrepreneur Center for Extension Education. Upon completion of the grants, structured personal interviews with faculty in Tajikistan identified the changes, or improvements, in classes/programs/projects/businesses that resulted from the 10-year collaboration with a developing country.
The panel will describe how photography helped understand and interpret the results of the quantitative and qualitative instruments, and suggest recommendations for the reporting process.
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Integrating Photography for Process Evaluation and Outcome Documentation
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| S Kay Rockwell,
University of Nebraska Lincoln,
krockwell1@unl.edu
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Photography was chosen as one method in two different evaluation studies: One designed to meet process evaluation needs and the other designed to meet outcome evaluation needs. This paper will describe why photography was selected, the challenges it presented, issues which needed to be addressed, problems which surfaced, managing the photos, using the photos in reports, and both the expected and unexpected value it had for the project leaders. The term, Embedded Reporter, will be contrasted with using the term, Participant-Observer, for the process evaluation study. The Photo Elicitation process used with small-group interviews in the process evaluation study will also be described; advantages and disadvantages of integrating a Photo Elicitation process will be proposed. The audience will be invited to describe how photography either enhanced, or could have enhanced, one of their recent evaluations, and the problems they encountered.
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Photo Enhancement of Structured Personal Interviews to Document Project Outcomes
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| Julie Albrecht,
University of Nebraska Lincoln,
jalbrecht1@unl.edu
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| Kathleen Prochaska-Cue,
University of Nebraska Lincoln,
kprochaska-cue1@unl.edu
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Photography was used to enhance the evaluation of a ten-year project with the Technological University of Tajikistan and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (three US State Department Grants). Structured personal interviews were used with a set of open-ended questions for 16 students, faculty and administrators to provide examples of projects that resulted from their training experience at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Digital photograph were taken at the time of the formal interviews as well as throughout the activities planned for the site visit. Evaluation goals and open-ended questions provided guidelines for sorting and summarizing the data and photographs. In the final report, photographs verified the written evaluation of implementation of the textile museum, entrepreneur center, classroom use of teaching methods and student involvement, university changes and community involvement as outcomes for the granting agency. The use of photographs to enhance evaluation was shared via the web for teaching the evaluation process.
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Enhancing Process Evaluation through an Embedded Reporter Approach Using Photography
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| Gwen Nugent,
University of Nebraska Lincoln,
gnugent1@unl.edu
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| Gina Kunz,
University of Nebraska Lincoln,
gkunz2@unl.edu
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This presentation will discuss how photography served as a key evaluation strategy on an NSF Geoscience Education project that also had major quantitative and qualitative research components. The quantitative component examined the impact of a field-based geoscience course for pre-service teachers, looking at the outcome variables of content knowledge, inquiry skills, and attitudes towards science. The qualitative analysis focused on analysis of student field books, providing a window into the student's thinking regarding the inquiry process and various aspects of the field-based experience that enhanced his/her status as a student and future teacher of geoscience content. Despite the valuable data provided by this mixed methods approach, it was clear that the numbers (quantitative analysis) and words (qualitative analysis) did not capture the full nature of the students' experience. The photographs provided valuable documentation of students' frustrations, confusion, understandings, and successes across the 14-day field experience.
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