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In 1994, Donald Kirkpatrick published a book outlining four levels of evaluation. They were:
The first two levels were fairly common, but transfer and (long term) results were a new idea, or at least an idea people were trying to avoid because of the difficulties in measuring them.
Let us begin by exploring these two forms of evaluation that are crucial to instructional design. They may be differentiated this way:
| Formative |
Summative |
|---|---|
| primarily prospective |
primarily retrospective |
| analyze strengths and weaknesses towards improving |
document achievement |
| develop habits |
document habits |
| shape direction of professional development |
show results of such forays |
| opportunity to reflect on meaning of past achievements? |
evidence of regular formative evaluation? |
| feedback |
evidence |
Source: CETaL
The Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors defines formative evaluation as "evaluation that is used to modify or improve products, programs, or activities, and is based on feedback obtained during their planning and development."
Lecture Notes for Formative Evaluation
The Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors defines summative evaluation as "Evaluation at the conclusion of an activity or plan to determine its effectiveness."
Lecture Notes for Summative Evaluation
COMET example of a Summative Evaluation (Powerpoint format)
The chapter concludes with a number of methods for evaluating the success of a program. We will want to be very clear on how these work.
Last modified Thursday, April 13, 2006 9:52 AM
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