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Evaluating PD

Guskey, T. R. (1999). New perspectives on evaluating professional development. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Montreal, 19-23 April.

Guskey defines evaluation as a systematic investigation of merit or worth requiring the collection and analysis of data.

Good evaluations are the product of thoughtful planning, the ability to ask good questions, and a basic understanding of how to find valid answers. In many ways, they are simply the refinement of everyday thinking. Good evaluations provide information that is sound, meaningful, and sufficiently reliable to use in making thoughtful and responsible decisions about professional development processes and effects. (Guskey & Sparks, 1991) (Guskey, 1999, p. 2)

Guskey identifies three forms of evaluation.

  • Planning evaluation - conducted at the beginning of a program and designed to provide a precise understanding of what is to be accomplished, what procedures will be used, and how success will be determined.
  • Formative evaluation - designed to provide ongoing information about whether things are going as planned and whether expected progress is being made.
  • Summative evaluation - conducted at the completion of the program and designed to provide information about the program's overall merit.

Guskey has developed earlier work by Kirkpatrick (1959, cited in Guskey, 1999) to propose five critical levels of evaluative information to consider, arranged from simple to more complex.

  • Participants' reactions. (Did they like it? Did they feel they learnt something?)
  • Participants' learning. (Pen-and-paper assessments, demonstrations, documented reflections, portfolios. Evaluated against agreed criteria.)
  • Organisational support and change. (Are organisational policies and practices compatible with the implementation goals of the professional development?)
  • Participants' use of new knowledge and skills. (Is there evidence of the application of new skills and approaches in the classroom?)
  • Student learning outcomes. (The 'bottom line', requiring multiple measures of student learning.)

Guskey provides examples of evaluation in practice and suggests a set of guidelines to help improve the quality of professional development evaluations.