The role of evaluation in the systems approach to instruction

In 'The Systems Approach to Curriculum Development', we looked in detail at a simple algorithm that can be used as the basis of course and curriculum design (click for Figure 1 : The systems approach to curriculum and course design). We saw that the first two stages involve carrying out a preliminary examination of the characteristics of the target population and topic area, and estimating the relevant existing skills and knowledge of the learners. The next three stages involve formulating a clear set of educational objectives/learning outcomes for the course or curriculum, selecting appropriate teaching/learning methods for achieving these, and putting the chosen methods into practice by operating the course or curriculum. The final stage involves trying to find out whether the course or curriculum was successful by means of a linked process of assessment and evaluation, and then using the feedback thus obtained to improve and refine the course or curriculum by going round the cycle once again.

The difference between assessment and evaluation

At this point, it would probably be useful to remind ourselves what we mean by the terms assessment and evaluation.

By assessment, first of all, we mean those activities that are designed to measure learner achievement brought about as a result of an instructional programme of some sort.

Evaluation, on the other hand, refers to a series of activities that are designed to measure the effectiveness of the instructional system or a section or component thereof.

As we saw in the previous section, the two processes are fairly closely related, since the results of student assessment constitute one of the most important sets of data that should be taken into account in the evaluation of any course or curriculum.

We also saw that both assessment and evaluation are closely related to the educational objectives/learning outcomes of the course or curriculum, since they are both basically concerned with determining the extent to which these have (or have not) been achieved. When it comes to explaining exactly what we mean by 'evaluation', the following definition given by Mary Thorpe in 1988 is probably as useful as any:

Commenting on the above definition in 1992, Derek Rowntree made the following further extremely valid points:

This, then, is the interpretation of 'evaluation' that National Councils tend to use whenever they choose to examine the totality of the Higher Education teaching and learning environment and of the overall experience of students in Higher Education, rather than simply teaching methods, delivery and learning outcomes. Let us therefore look in more detail at how it should be carried out - even though results can be provocative.

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