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Managing the Evaluation
Evaluation works best if it is seen as a continuous process engaged in by all those who contribute to the setting up and participating in the group rather than being left to others to deliberate over or, where it is in a summative, end-of-course form, for a new group with less commitment to experience. It makes a lot of collaborative sense to conduct group evaluation it in such a way that results can be fed back to all concerned in time for improvements to be put in place, experienced and reviewed. Such a procedure is known as formative evaluation.
"When the cook tastes the soup, it is formative evaluation; when the dinner guest tastes the soup, it is summative evaluation" (George J & Cowan J, (1999). Formative evaluation is designed to pick up information and concerns which can be addressed and acted on as a course progresses.
Questions to consider:
- What clues are you picking up from week to week in the group?
- How appropriate are the demands implied by the aims and learning outcomes?
- How do any assessments match the learning outcomes/aims?
- How open is the group to consideration of its effectiveness and progress?
- How 'constructively aligned' are the group methods and tasks to the learning outcomes?
- How aligned is the group's work with the other learning activities in the course?
- How effective are the tutors/moderators in supporting the students' achievement of learning outcomes?
- How appropriate are the methods of feedback and evaluation?
- What processes are there in place for action and development based on evaluative feedback?
It is easy for an evaluation of group work to resolve itself into a critique of the tutor rather than of the whole group. Certainly, the tutor will in most cases feel responsible if things go 'wrong' but, recognising the mutual nature of human interaction for being what it is, we must avoid the temptation of judging the success of a group in terms of the tutor's skills alone. This notion becomes more compelling when we understand the value of the students themselves learning about their own group skills through the process of evaluation.
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