Curriculum evaluation is a long-term process based not only on student performance but also on the teaching methodology applied & the content taught. Both formative& summative evaluation should be conducted to provide accurate feedback on the teaching methodology, type of activities used, student response, & as a result, student performance. The curriculum designers & evaluators' role is trying to find solutions to dilemmas resulting from the implementation of a new curriculum.
The evaluation for, the duties of curriculum designers, textbook authors, & teachers in making implementation of a new curriculum a successful experience will be discussed below.
Curriculum designers have to admit the fact that:.
Curriculum without shortcomings has no prospect of improvement & has therefore been insufficiently ambitious. What we ask of a curriculum offering is not that it should be right or good, but that it should be intelligent & penetrating. Its dilemmas should be important dilemmas. Its shortcomings should reflect real & important difficulties (Stenhouse, 1984, p.125).
They aim to develop a policy that promises a long process of systematic improvement of the present academic situation. As a result, formative & summative evaluations are needed.
Evaluation should occur throughout the process of curriculum development. .
Evaluation may serve two complementary functions. In one context, the aim is prospective, or formative -- to improve, to understand strengths in order to amplify them, or to isolate weaknesses to mend. The other context is retrospective, or summative -- to assess concrete achievement, perhaps as part of a process of acknowledgement or giving awards. Here are the ways to think about the distinction further:.
Formative Summative.
primarily prospective primarily retrospective.
analyze strengths and weaknesses towards improving document achievement.
develop habits document habits.