Assessment of student learning outcomes can be a powerful tool for improvement of instruction when a scientific approach is taken; unfortunately, many educators do not take full advantage of this approach. This article examines benefits of taking a scientific approach to critical thinking assessment and proposes guidelines for planning,…

In the process of experiential learning, students acquire skills and values as the consequence of a direct experience. Experiential learning draws on senses, emotions, and cognition and appeals to learners' entire being. Such learning, by nature, enables the development of a variety of capabilities, such as planning, teamwork, coping with…

The overall aim of this article is to analyze the relationships between the roles of assessment in pedagogy, the interactions between curriculum assessment and pedagogy, and the study of pupils' progression in learning. It is argued that well-grounded evidence of pupils' progressions in learning is crucial to the work of teachers, so that a method…

The "Mathematics and Technology Attitudes Scale" (MTAS) is a simple scale for middle secondary years students that monitors five affective variables relevant to learning mathematics with technology. The subscales measure mathematics confidence, confidence with technology, attitude to learning mathematics with technology and two aspects of…

Describes the use of the "Why 10?" game at the beginning and end of a course on instructional development to test its feasibility as a means of evaluating the course. The game showed promise as a valid tool for assessing changes in students' attitudes. (JEG)

Based on the premise that instructional development is a change process and the instructional developer is a change agent, this chapter begins by considering the literature of planned change as applied to the process of instructional development. It is argued that instructional product evaluation must include both formative and summative…

This chapter addresses the problems encountered in the formative evaluation of instructional development projects and the instructional development process. Three types of formative evaluation--component, convergent, and contextual--are distinguished, and the consequences of using the wrong type of evaluation in a particular situation or project…

Needs assessment is a fundamental part of evaluation, and yet it has not developed as rapidly in sophistication as other evaluation methodologies. This is largely due to the difficulty in measuring real needs, as opposed to wants, interests, etc. This paper discusses some of the critical issues in needs assessment, and outlines some of the…

Describes and compares three approaches to task analysis--behaviorally-based, concept-based, and cognitive process-based--and provides four tentative recommendations for determining which approach is appropriate in a particular situation. Five flowcharts and fourteen references are included. (MBR)

Developmental research, as opposed to simple instructional development, has been defined as the systematic study of designing, developing, and evaluating instructional programs, processes, and products that must meet criteria of internal consistency and effectiveness. Developmental research is particularly important in the field of instructional…

In November 1984, the Rand Corporation was asked by the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting (A/CPB) Project to conduct a study during the spring 1985 school semester on the feasibility of evaluating student outcomes from A/CPB telecourses. This report documents the findings of that study, which had three goals: (1) to examine alternative…

Reviews four different approaches to evaluation--decision-oriented, applied research, value-oriented, and systems-oriented--and suggests how each may be applied to the evaluation of instructional programs. Nine references are listed. (Author/CHC)

Design education encompasses various teaching strategies with classes typically evaluated by students at the end of the term. This evaluation is often perfunctory; in contrast, the observational research presented in this paper examines a variety of design classes as they are taught, then analyzes the observations through three perspectives:…

An experiment designed to determine the aptitude level(s) and group size which would provide optimal feedback for formative evaluation of instructional materials found that revisions based on feedback from one-to- one sessions with a mixed aptitude group were more effective than those based on feedback from a group or single aptitude level. (EAO)

Describes a project at Bell Laboratories which sought a compromise between ideal formative evaluation procedures and more feasible procedures necessitated by restrictions on time and resources. Local-trial and field-trial stages of a phased approach are discussed, as well as the benefits of field-tests. (EAO)