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ERIC Number: ED274705
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1986-Apr
Pages: 19
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Usefulness of Comparative Product Research for the Use of Evaluation Results in Curriculum Development.
van den Berg, Gerald; And Others
This paper examines possible explanations for the fact that evaluation results are rarely used. Most explanatory factors for use of results in decision making mentioned in the literature have been clustered in three categories of variables. They concern: (1) the making of decisions about the practical problem; (2) the way in which evaluation is approached; and (3) the communication between decision makers and evaluation researchers. First, this study reports on a comparative case study in which 14 curriculum development projects were systematically compared with each other. Second, it reports on the experience in three curriculum evaluation projects in which the most important conclusions from the first study were put into practice. The three research projects dealt with curricula for arithmetic/mathematics and Dutch language for elementary education and economics for secondary education in the Netherlands. In each of the research projects, the principal question was whether the difference in efficacy between the curricula was sufficiently marked to justify giving one preference over the other. A competition model was used, the advantages of which were to: (1) force publishers to clarify aims; (2) make evaluation criteria and standards explicit; (3) make research results unconditionally accepted; and (4) confront parties involved with comparisons of their own predictions. It is recommended that the competition model be used in addition to the classical model of empirical testing. (JAZ)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Researchers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Netherlands
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A