ASSESSING/EVALUATING THE CURRICULUM


Curriculum assessment may achieve the following purposes:

 

1.          Highlight curriculum expectations;

2.          Gather information about what students know and can do,

3.          Motivate and encourage teachers to meet the identifies needs of students

4.          Provide evidence to tell how well the students have learned ; and

5.          Obtain feedback that helps teachers, students and parents make good decisions to guide instruction

 

 

Intended Curriculum - refers to a set of objectives identified set at the beginning of any curricular plan. It establishes the goal, the specific purposes, and the immediate objectives to be accomplished. The intended curriculum specifies what the curriculum maker wants to do.

 

Implemented Curriculum - refers to the various learning activities or experiences of the students in order to achieve the intended curricular outcomes.

 

Achieved curriculum - refers to the curriculum outcomes based on the first two types of curriculum, the intended and implemented. The achieved curriculum is considered the product. It can be the learning outcomes, or a material product itself, like a book, modules or instructional material.

 

What is evaluation? Evaluation is the process of determining the value of something or the extent to which goals are being achieved. It is a process of making decisions or reaching a conclusion. It involves decision making about student performance based on information obtained from assessment process. Assessment id the process of collecting information by reviewing the products of student works, interviewing, observing or testing.

 

Evaluation is the process if using information that is collected through assessment. The ultimate purpose of any evaluation process that takes place in schools is to improve student learning. It entails a reasoning process that is based on inference. Inference, which the process of arriving at a logical conclusion from a body of evidence. Inference usually refers to the process of developing a conclusion on the basis of some phenomenon that is not experienced or observed directly by the person drawing inference.

 

Evaluation is thoughtful process, used to understand things. Evaluation has been defined is a variety of ways, all of which have at their core the idea of comparison. When we evaluate, we make comparison between things, not the differences, summarize our findings and draw conclusion about results.

 

Evaluation is the judgment made about the assessments of students learning based on established criteria. It involves a process of integrating information from various sources and using this information to make inferences and judgments about how well the students have achieved curriculum expectations. Evaluation involves placing a value on and determining the worth of student‘s assessment. Evaluation is usually made so that progress can be communicated to students and parents.

 

Evaluation provides information

 

             Directly to the learner for guidance

             Directly to the teacher for orientation of the next instruction activities; and

             Directly to external agencies for their assessment of schools functioning in the light of national purpose.

 

What is Curriculum Evaluation? Curriculum Evaluation is the process of obtaining information for judging the worth of an educational program, product, procedure, educational objectives or the potential utility of alternative approaches designed to attain specified objectives,

 

Curriculum evaluation focuses on determining whether the curriculum as recorded in the master plan has been carried out in the classroom. In evaluating a curriculum, the following key questions are usually asked:

1.          Are the objectives being addressed?

2.          Are the contents presented in the recommended sequence?

3.          Are the students being involved in the suggested instructional experiences?

4.          Are the students reaching to the contents?

 

Suggested Plan of Action for Curriculum Evaluation

 

1.  Focus in one particular component of the curriculum. Will it be the subject area, the grade level, the course or the degree program? Specify the objectives of evaluation.

2.  Collect or gather the information is made up of data needed regarding the object of evaluation

3.  Organize the information. This step will require coding, organizing, strong and retrieving data for interpretation

4.  Analyze information. An appropriate way of analyzing will be utilized

5.  Report information. The result of evaluation should be reported to specific audiences

6.  Reporting can be done formally in conferences with stakeholders, or informal through roundtable discussion and conversation.

7.  Recycle the information for continuous feedback, modification and adjustments to be made.


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