1

Evaluation in nursing education and its importance

Education is considered as an investment in human beings in terms of development of human

resources, skills, motivation, knowledge and the like. Evaluation helps to build an educational

programme, assess its achievements and improve upon its effectiveness. Evaluation plays an

enormous role in the teaching-learning process. It helps teachers and learners to improve

teaching and learning. Evaluation is a continuous process and a periodic exercise. It helps in

forming the values of judgement, educational status, or achievement of student. Evaluation in

one form or the other is inevitable in teaching-learning, as in all fields of activity of education

judgements need to be made.

Purposes of evaluation:

Evaluation of teaching can have many purposes, including collecting feedback for teaching

improvement, developing a portfolio for job applications, or gathering data as part of

personnel decisions, such as reappointment or promotion and tenure.

Most of the methods described below can be used for all of these functions. In general, efforts

to collect information for improvement can be informal and focus on specific areas an

individual instructor wishes to develop. Information for job applications involves presenting

one’s best work and meeting the requirements outlined in job ads. However, when the

purpose of evaluation is personnel decision making, it is important to use a comprehensive

and systematic process. Because there are many dimensions to pedagogical work, it is best to

use multiple measures involving multiple sources of data to evaluate the range of

instructional activities, which can include the following:

 Instructional Delivery (including quality, amount, and level of classroom instruction)

 Course Planning (including development of course materials, course revision,

development of new courses)

 2

 Grading and Assessing Student Learning (including appropriate level of assignments,

exams, grading standards)

 Course Management (including supervision of GSIs)

 Oversight of Independent Studies, Honors Theses, Prelims, Dissertations

 Support for Student Internships, Experiential Learning, Service Learning

 Department and Curricular Work (including participation in curriculum revision,

departmental efforts to focus on teaching)

 Advising and Mentoring

 Professional Development and Innovation Around Teaching

Ty p e s o f E v a l u a t i o n s

Evaluations are normally divided into two categories:  formative and summative.

1. Formative

A formative evaluation (sometimes referred to as internal) is a method for judging

the worth of a program while the program activities are forming (in progress). They

can be conducted during any phase of the  ADDIE  process. This part of the

evaluation focuses on the process. Thus, formative evaluations are basically done on

the fly. They permit the designers, learners, instructors, and managers to monitor

how well the instructional goals and objectives are being met. Its main purpose is to

catch deficiencies ASAP so that the proper learning interventions can take place

that allows the learners to master the required skills and knowledge.

2. Summative

A summative evaluation (sometimes referred to as external) is a method of judging

the worth of a program at the end of the program activities (summation). The focus

is on the outcome.
 3

Other Types of Evaluation:

Curriculum evaluation

Curriculum evaluation involves the evaluation of any instructional program or instructional

materials, and includes evaluation of such factors as instructional strategies, textbooks,

audiovisual materials, and physical and organizational arrangements. Curriculum evaluation

may involve evaluation of a total package or evaluation of one small aspect of a total

curriculum, such as a film. Although ongoing programs are subject to evaluation, curriculum

evaluation is usually associated with innovation, a new or different approach; the approach

may be general or specific to a given area. Curriculum evaluation usually involves both

internal and external criteria and comparisons. Internal evaluation is concerned with whether

the new process or product achieves its stated objectives, that is whether it does what it

purports to do, as well as with evaluation of the objectives themselves. External evaluation is

concerned with whether the process or the product does whatever it does better than some

other process or product. In addition to student achievement, there are a number of other

factors which should be considered during curriculum evaluation. The two most important

factors are attitude and cost. Research has demonstrated that there is a proportional

relationship between teacher attitude toward curriculum and its ultimate effectiveness.

Curriculum evaluation has one major problem associated with it: It is very difficult to

compare fairly the effectiveness of one program or approach with another. Even if two

programs deal with the same subject area, they may deal with objectives which are very

different, and it is very difficult to find a test or other measures which is equally fair, or valid

for both programs. If one curriculum is to compared to another, the objectives of each must

be examined carefully; if no measure can be located which is equally appropriate to both,

then one must be developed that is.

 4

School evaluation

Evaluation of a school involves evaluation of the total educational program of the school and

entails the collection of data on all aspects of its functioning. The purpose of the school

evaluation is to determine the degree to which school objectives are being met and to identify

areas of strength and weakness in the total program. Information from school program

provides feedback to which gives direction to the future activities of the school and results in

decision concerning the allocation of school resources. One major component of school

evaluation is the school-testing program; the more comprehensive the testing program, the

more valuable are the resulting data. A school testing program should include measurement

of achievement, aptitude, personality and interest. Test selected for a school must match the

objectives of the school and be appropriate for the students to be tested. In general, school

evaluation involves more than the administration of tests to students; it may require any

combination of questionnaires, interviews, and observations with data being collected from

all persons in the school community, including administration, teachers and counsellors.

Evaluation of personnel Evaluation of personnel (staff evaluation) includes evaluation of all

persons responsible, either directly or indirectly, for educational outcomes, i.e., teachers,

administrators, counsellors and so forth. It has been found out that this area of evaluation is

very complicated; it is difficult to determine what behaviours are to be evaluated. The best

solution to problem of personnel evaluation is to collect the best and most data possible, from

as many sources as possible.

Uses of Evaluation

(i) Teaching:
 5

Evaluation is concerned with assessing the effectiveness of teaching, teaching strategies,

methods and techniques. It provides feedback to the teachers about their teaching and the

learners about their learning.

(ii) Curriculum:

The improvement in courses/curricula, texts and teaching materials is brought about with the

help of evaluation.

(iii) Society:

Evaluation provides accountability to society in terms of the demands and requirements of

the employment market.

(iv) Parents:

Evaluation mainly manifests itself in a perceived need for regular reporting to parents.

In brief, evaluation is a very important requirement for the education system. It fulfills

various purposes in systems of education like quality control in education, selection/entrance

to a higher grade or tertiary level.

It also helps one to take decisions about success in specific future activities and provides

guidance to further studies and occupation. Some of the educationists’ view evaluation

virtually synonymous with that of learner appraisal, but evaluation has an expanded role
 6

References

Tuchman, B.W. (1975) Measuring Educational Outcomes Fundamental of Testing. Atlanta:

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich inc.

Gronlund, N.E and Linn, R.L (1990), Measurement and evaluation in teaching 6th edition

London: Macmillan.

Guyot, W.M. (1978). Summative and Formative Evaluation.  The Journal of

Business

Education. 54(3):127-129.

Misanchuk, E.R. (1978). Uses and Abuses of Evaluation in Continuing Education

Programs: On the Frequent Futility of Formative, Summative, and

Justificative Evaluation. San Antonio, Texas: Paper presented at the Adult

Education Research Conference, 4-78.