Evaluation

 Evaluation is a process that critically examines a program. It

involves collecting and analyzing information about a
program’s activities, characteristics, and outcomes. Its
purpose is to make judgments about a program, to improve
its effectiveness, and/or to inform programming decisions .
 Evaluation is determining the value of something. In the
field of education, evaluation means measuring or
observing the process to judge it or to determine it for its
value by comparing it to others or some kind of a standard.
 The focus of the evaluation is on grades. It is rather a final
process that is determined to understand the quality of the
process
 The quality of the process is mostly determined by grades.
That is such an evaluation can come as a paper that is given
grades.
 Evaluation is comparing a student's achievement with other
students or with a set of standards (Howard & Donaghue 2015).
 It refers to consideration of evidence in the light of value
standards and in terms of the particular situations and the
goals, which the group or individuals are striving to attain.
 Evaluation designates more comprehensive concept of
measurement than is implied in conventional tests and
examination. The emphasis of evaluation is based upon broad
personality change and the major objectives in the educational
program(Howard & Donaghue 2015).
Evaluation can, and should, however, be used as an
ongoing management and learning tool to improve
learning. It includes five basic components
according to Kizlik (2010):
1) Articulating the purpose of the educational system.
2) Identifying and collecting relevant information.
3) Having ideas that are valuable and useful to
learners in their lives and professions
4) Analyzing and interpreting information for learners.
5) Classroom management or classroom decision
making
Well-run classes and effective programs are those
that can demonstrate the achievement of results.
Results are derived from good management.
Good management is based on good decision
making. Good decision making depends on good
information. Good information requires good
data and careful analysis of the data. These are
all critical elements of evaluation.
Principles of Evaluation
Here are some principles according to Howard & Donaghue 2015
and Kellaghan & Stufflebean2003;
(i) Effective evaluation is a continuous, on-going process. Much
more than determining the outcome of learning, it is rather a
way of gauging learning over time. Learning and evaluation
are never completed; they are always evolving and
developing.
(ii) A variety of evaluative tools is necessary to provide the most
accurate assessment of students' learning and progress.
Dependence on one type of tool to the exclusion of others
deprives students of valuable learning opportunities and robs
you of measures that help both students and the overall
program grow
(iii) Evaluation must be a collaborative activity
between teachers and students. Students must be
able to assume an active role in evaluation so they
can begin to develop individual responsibilities for
development and self-monitoring.
(iv) Evaluation needs to be authentic. It must be
based on the natural activities and processes
students do both in the classroom and in their
everyday lives. For example, relying solely on
formalized testing procedures might send a signal
to children that learning is simply a search for
“right answers.
 EVALUATION
The Purposes of Evaluation
 According to Oguniyi (1984), educational evaluation is
carried out from time to time for the following
purposes;
(i) to determine the relative effectiveness of the
programme in terms of students’ behavioural output;
ii) to make reliable decisions about educational planning
(iii) to ascertain the worth of time, energy and resources
invested in a programme
(iv)to identify students’ growth or lack of growth in
acquiring desirable knowledge, skills, attitudes and
societal values;
(v)to help teachers determine the effectiveness of their
teaching techniques and learning materials;
(vi) to help motivate students to want to learn more as
they discover their progress or lack of progress in given
tasks;
(vii) to encourage students to develop a sense
of discipline and systematic study habits;
(viii) to provide educational administrators with adequate
information about teachers’ effectiveness and school
need;
(ix) to acquaint parents or guardians with their children’s
performances;
(x) to identify problems that might hinder or prevent the
achievement of set goals;
(xi) to predict the general trend in the development of the
teaching-learning process;
(xii) to ensure an economical and efficient management of
scarce resources;
(xiii) to provide an objective basis for determining the
promotion of students from one class to another as well as
the award of certificates;
(xiv) to provide a just basis for determining at what level of
education the possessor of a certificate should enter a career
 Types of Evaluation
1. Placement Evaluation:
 Placement evaluation is designed to place the right person in
the right place. It ensures the entry performance of the
pupil. The future success of the instructional process
depends on the success of placement evaluation.
 Placement evaluation aims at evaluating the pupil’s entry
behaviour in a sequence of instruction. In other words the
main goal of such evaluation is to determine the level or
position of the child in the instructional sequence.
 We have a planned scheme of instruction for classroom
which is supposed to bring a change in pupil’s behaviour in
an orderly manner. Then we prepare or place the students
for planned instruction for their better prospects.
When a student is to undertake a new instruction,
it is essential to know the answer of the
following questions:
a. Does the student possess required knowledge
and skills for the instruction?
b. Whether the student has already mastered some
of the instructional learning outcomes or not?
c. Whether the mode of instruction is suitable to
student’s interests, work habits and personal
characteristics?
We get the answer to all the probable questions
by using a variety of tests, self report inventories,
observational techniques, case study, attitude test
and achievement tests.
Sometimes past experiences, which inspire for
present learning also lead to the further
placement in a better position or admission. This
type of evaluation is helpful for admission of
students into a new course of instruction.
Examples:
i. Aptitude test
ii. Self-reporting inventories
iii. Observational techniques
iv. Medical entrance exam.
v. Engineering or Agriculture entrance exam
2. Diagnostic Evaluation
Diagnostic evaluation is concerned with the
persistent or recurring learning difficulties that
are left unresolved by the standard corrective
prescriptions of formative evaluation.
The main aim of this evaluation is to
determine the causes of learning problems
and to formulate a plan for remedial action
It is concerned with identifying the learning
difficulties or weakness of students during
instruction. It tries to locate or discover the specific
area of weakness of a student in a given course of
instruction and also tries to provide remedial
measure.
N.E. Gronlund says “…… formative evaluation
provides first-aid treatment for simple learning
problems whereas diagnostic evaluation searches for
the underlying causes of those problems that do not
respond to first-aid treatment.”
When the teacher finds that in spite of the use of
various alternative methods, techniques and
corrective prescriptions the student still faces
learning difficulties, he/she takes recourse to a
detailed diagnosis through specifically designed
tests called ‘diagnostic tests’.
Diagnosis can be made by employing observational
techniques, too. In case of necessity the services of
psychological and medical specialists can be utilised
for diagnosing serious learning handicaps.
3. Formative Evaluation
The purpose of formative evaluation is to find out
whether after a learning experience, students are
able to do what they were previously unable to do.
Its ultimate goal is usually to help students perform
well at the end of a programme.
 Formative evaluation is concerned with the
monitoring of learning progress during instruction.
 It provides continuous feedback to both students
and teachers concerning learning successes and
failures:
 Feedback to students provides reinforcement of
successful learning and identifies learning errors
that are in need of correction.
 Feedback to the teachers provides information for
modifying instruction and for prescribing group or
remedial work.
Tests used for formative evaluation are most
frequently teacher made. Observational techniques
are also useful in monitoring students’ progress and
identify successes and challenges in learning
Formative evaluation enables the teacher to:
1. draw more reliable inference about his/her
students than an external assessor, although
he/she may not be as objective as the latter;
2. identify the levels of cognitive process of his
students;
3. choose the most suitable teaching
techniques and materials;
4. determine the feasibility of a programme
within the classroom setting;
5. determine areas needing modifications or
improvement in the teaching-learning
process;
6. determine to a great extent the outcome of
summative evaluation. (Ogunniyi, 1984)
The functions of formative evaluation are:
(a) Diagnosing:
Diagnosing is concerned with determining the most
appropriate method or instructional materials conducive to
learning.
(b) Placement:
Placement is concerned with the finding out the position of an
individual in the curriculum from which he has to start
learning.
(c) Monitoring:
Monitoring is concerned with keeping track of the day-to- day
progress of the learners and to point out changes necessary
in the methods of teaching, instructional strategies, etc.
Characteristics of Formative Evaluation:
The characteristics of formative evaluation are as follows:
a. It is an integral part of the learning process.
b. It occurs, frequently, during the course of instruction.
c. Its results are made immediately known to the learners.
d. It may sometime take form of teacher observation only.
e. It reinforces learning of the students.
f. It pinpoints difficulties being faced by a weak learner.
g. Its results cannot be used for grading or
placement purposes.
h. It helps in modification of instructional
strategies including method of teaching,
immediately.
i. It motivates learners, as it provides them with
knowledge of progress made by them.
j. It sees role of evaluation as a process.
k. It is generally a teacher-made test.
l. It does not take much time to be constructed.
Some of the questions often asked under this type
of evaluation include:
1. What is the learning outcomes of the lesson?
2. What materials will be needed to teach this lesson?
3. In what sequence will the different aspects of the
topic be treated? How much time should be given to
different aspects of the topic?
4. What teaching techniques will be most suitable to tr
ansmit this knowledge or skill?
5. What evaluation techniques would be used to
assess student achievement? Will they be
effective or not?
6. What assignment or project should be given
as part of or apart from class work?
7. Has the learning outcomes been achieved?
8. What progress are the students making?
What difficulties are they encountering relative
to the topic?
9. What additional facilities or resources would e
nhance the knowledge or skills gained by the
students?
10. Are students’ needs and interests being met?
Are the students able to transfer their
knowledge or skills to other areas?
Thus, Formative evaluation attempts to;
i) identify the content (i.e. knowledge or skill) which
has not been mastered by the students;
(ii) appraise the level of cognitive abilities such as
memorization, classification, comparison, analysis,
explanation, quantification, application and so on;
(iii) specify the relationships between content and
levels of cognitive abilities
In other words, formative evaluation provides the evaluator
with useful information about the strength or weakness
of the student within an instructional context
Examples:
i. Monthly tests.
ii. Class tests.
iii. Periodical assessment.
iv. Teacher’s observation, etc
4. Summative Evaluation
Summative evaluation often attempts to determine the
extent the broad objectives of a programme have been
achieved (i.e. KCPE, KCSE, PROMOTION, GRADE TEST,
KASNEB Exams) and other public examinations).
It is concerned with purposes, progress and outcomes of
the teaching-learning process.
Summative evaluation is judgemental in nature and often
carries threat with it in that the student may have no
knowledge of the evaluator and failure has a far reaching
effect on the students. However, it is more objective
than formative evaluation
Summative evaluation comes at the end of
course (or unit) of instruction.
It aims at determining how students have
attained instructional learning outcomes and
providing information to grade students and/or
to evaluate teacher effectiveness.
Its general purpose is grading students or
certification of student achievement or providing
information for judging the appropriateness of
the course learning outcomes and effectiveness
of instruction
The functions of summative evaluation are:
(a) Crediting:
Crediting is concerned with collecting evidence that a learner has
achieved some instructional goals in contents in respect to a
defined curricular programme.
(b) Certifying:
Certifying is concerned with giving evidence that the learner is able
to perform a job according to the previously determined
standards.
(c) Promoting:
It is concerned with promoting students to next higher class.
(d) Selecting:
Selecting the students for different courses after completion of a
particular course structure.
Characteristics of Summative Evaluation:
a. It is terminal in nature as it comes at the end
of a course of instruction (or a programme).
b. It is judgemental in character in the sense that
it judges the achievement of pupils.
c. It views evaluation “as a product”, because its
chief concern is to point out the levels of
attainment.
d. It cannot be based on teachers observations
only.
e. It does not pin-point difficulties faced by the
learner.
f. Its results can be used for placement or grading
purposes.
g. It reinforces learning of the students who has
learnt an area.
h. It may or may not motivate a learner.
Sometimes, it may have negative effect.
Some of the underlying assumptions of summative
evaluation are that;
1. the programme’s learning outcomes are achievable;
2. the teaching learning process has been conducted
efficiently;
3. the teacher student material interactions have been
conducive to learning;
4. the teaching techniques, learning materials and
audio-visual aids are adequate and have been judiciously
dispensed
5. there is uniformity in classroom conditions for all
learners
Examples:
1. Traditional school and university examination,
2. Teacher-made tests,
3. Standardised tests,
4. Practical and oral tests,
5. Rating scales, etc.
Factors to be Considered for Successful Evaluation
1. Sampling technique
– Appropriate sampling procedure must be
adopted.
2. Evaluation itself must be well organized.
- Treatment
- conducive atmosphere
- intended and unintended outcomes and their
implications considered
3. Objectivity of the instrument.
- Feasibility of the investigation
- Resolution of ethical issues
- Reliability of the test (accuracy of data
in terms of stability, repeatability and precision)
- validity
- test should measure what it is supposed to
measure and the characteristics to be measured
must be reflected.
4. Rationale of the evaluation instrument
5. It must be ensured that the disparity in students’ perf
ormances are related to the content of the test
rather than to the techniques used in administering
the instrument.
6. The format used must be the most economical
and efficient.
7. Teachers must have been adequately prepared.
They must be qualified to teach the subjects allotted to
them
Need and Importance of Evaluation:
 Education has multi-fold programmes and activities to
inculcate in students a sense of common values, integrated
approach, group feelings, community interrelationship
leading to national integration and knowledge to adjust in
different situations.
 Evaluation in education assesses the effectiveness of worth of
an educational experience which is measured against
instructional learning outcomes.
Evaluation is done to fulfil the following needs:
1. (a) It helps a teacher to know his pupils in details. Today,
education is child-centered. So, child’s abilities, interest,
aptitude, attitude etc., are to be properly studied so as to
arrange instruction accordingly.
(b) It helps the teacher to determine, evaluate and
refine his instructional techniques.
(c) It helps him in setting, refining and clarifying
the learning outcomes.
(d) It helps him to know the entry behaviour of
the students
2. It helps an administrator.
(a) In educational planning and
(b) In educational decisions on selections,
classification and placement
3. Education is a complex process. Thus, there is a great need
of continuous evaluation of its processes and products. It
helps to design better educational programmes.
4. The parents are eager to know about the educational
progress of their children and evaluation can assess the
pupils’ progress from time to time.
5. A sound choice of learning outcomes depends on an
accurate information regarding pupil’s abilities, interest,
attitude and personality traits and such information is
obtained through evaluation.
6. Evaluation helps us to know whether the instructional
learning outcomes have been achieved or not. As such
evaluation helps planning of better strategies for education.
7. A sound programme of evaluation clarifies the aims of
education and it helps us to know whether aims and learning
outcomes are attainable or not. As such, it helps in
reformulation of aims and learning outcomes.
8. Evaluation studies the ‘total child’ and thus helps us to
undertake special instructional programmes like enrichment
programme, for the bright and remedial programmes for the
slow learners.
9. It helps a student in encouraging good study habits, in
increasing motivation and in developing abilities and skills, in
knowing the results of progress and in getting appropriate
feedback.
10. It helps us to undertake appropriate guidance services
SUMMARY
 Measurement is seen as a process of assigning numbers to
objects, quantities or events in other to give quantitative
meanings to such qualities.
Assessment is the process of organizing measurement data
into interpretable forms. It gives evidence of change and
the direction of change without value judgement.
Evaluation is the estimation of the worth of a thing, process
or programmes in order to reach meaningful decisions
about that thing, process or programme. It calls for
evidence of effectiveness, suitability of goodness of the
programme or process.
Evaluation serves a number of purposes in
education
Evaluation could be formative or
summative. The two serve different purposes
in the classroom.
A number of factors such as sampling
techniques, organization, objectivity etc must
be considered for successful evaluation
ACTIVITY
1. . Describe how a normal programme can be
Evaluated
2. What are the functions of formative evaluation
3. Why is it important for you to be able to
identify the differences and similarities among
the following concepts: test, measurement,
assessment, and evaluation?
4. Critically elaborate this statement “Evaluations
is a means to an end, not an end in itself”