I found it interesting that high-level evaluation is not simply an end-of-course activity. (text page 180)
The concept of "confirmative evaluation" requires that there be a lapse of time between and training and evaluation in order for the evaluation to be to be judged.
I
can use this in my classroom to help my assessments.
I, like most teachers, give my assessments (tests, quizes etc) pretty much immediately following the lesson.
This is good but must not be the only assessment.
If I really want to confirm that real learning has taken place, I need to give some sort of evaluation after some time has gone by.
I suppose this assumes that the training was in a meaningful and reinforced over time.
The author describes a continuum of learning which ranges from intent to knowing (I paraphrased a bit here) so I suspect this sort of evaluation is best for skill type activities that get reinforced with practice over time.
Fortunately I teach quite a lot of skill based curriculum so this is useful for me.
I liked the discussion on the concept of rapid prototyping methodologies in this chapter as well (page 179). It sort of reminds me of the saying “A good plan now is better than a perfect plan next week.” As described in the chapter, rapid prototyping is an iterative process where design gets roughed in and perfected over time via live feedback from users. I have always said it is a whole lot easier to edit than it is to create so this rings true to me. I can use this in my classroom by getting my good ideas out to students faster without the polish knowing that the best way to get a creative and innovative lesson great is to get it in front of students. Now that I think of it, productivity wise, it is much more efficient to try a slightly unpolished lesson to see if it has potential than it is to spend hours to get every detail of a lesson perfect and then discover it just doesn’t work. Using the concept of rapid prototyping, I can try more ideas and then be more productive spending time polishing the ones with potential.
3 comments:
I agree that if you really want to confirm that real learning has taken place you need to do another evaluation later on because so many people memorize info and then just purge it right out of their memory.
"Now that I think of it, productivity wise, it is much more efficient to try a slightly unpolished lesson to see if it has potential than it is to spend hours to get every detail of a lesson perfect and then discover it just doesn’t work. "
I agree with this, sometimes the evaluations seem to take over and you don't make any progress with the lesson. Plus if you are good at what you do, you should have just a general idea of what is working and what is not.I DO think evaluation is very important and should be involved in everything, but moderation is the key
Joseph,
“A good plan now is better than a perfect plan next week.” I like that saying. It is typically very true. Now if we could just get our politicians to feel that way.
Jeff Tyler
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