THE USE OF EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN IN EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION

Considerable controversy has existed concerning the utility of experimental design in educational evaluation. The polar positions are that experimental design has no utility in educational evaluation and that experimental design is the only valid evaluation strategy. This article examines these positions in terms of conceptualizations of evaluation according to the'LCIPP Evaluation Model "and of experimental design according to the "true comparative experiment." An alternative position including three main points is developed: (a) The methodology of educational evaluation includes much more than the methodology of experimental design; (b) Experimental design does have potential utility in the areas of input and product evaluation, but not within the areas of context and process evaluation; (c) The utility of experimental design can be increased by following a set of procedures that do not require the use of common criterion instruments and uniform decision rules for all students in an experiment; this allows judgment of a program in terms of the number of students for whom it was successful.     

Facilitating Holistic Curriculum Development

There is a movement in higher education to think of a curriculum less as a sequence of independent courses and more as a set of highly integrated learning and assessment experiences designed to help students develop clearly defined outcomes. This paper reports on a case study that illustrates how internal curriculum assessment processes used by an environmental science and policy department in an institution of higher education lead to the creation of an innovative tenure-track faculty line for someone whose primary activities and scholarship focus not on traditional disciplinary scholarship but instead on coordinating the holistic development of an integrated curriculum. This paper goes on to show how I, the person hired into this position, am facilitating the coordinated development of a senior thesis programme, a junior entry course into the major and a disciplinary writing programme for the purpose of developing a more integrated curriculum.     

Implications of the New Common Assessment Framework and Lead Professional Working for Pastoral Care Staff in Schools

The common assessment framework (CAF) and lead professional (LP) working are being introduced into all local authorities in the next 2 years as part of the Every Child Matters agenda. This article describes some elements of an evaluation of 12 pilot trials. It was found that schools and pastoral staff in particular played a major part in the trials. The majority of the research participants thought that this was a worthwhile initiative and examples were collected of successful implementation of the scheme. However, issues of missing skills, lack of time and limited practical support for staff in schools were highlighted. It is suggested that these issues may be magnified in the full-scale implementation of CAF and LP work. Considerable effort by pastoral staff and education managers will be required if this 'good idea' is to deliver improved outcomes for children in need.     

Medical books publishing in traditional printed formats: current trends

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