Understanding student learning evidence: a case study of evaluation use and evaluation influence for accountability and learning
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Robyn Lyn Thomas Pitts (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Jill Chouinard
Abstract: Evaluation use is a key construct in evaluation that characterizes the ways in which an evaluation, through its processes and findings, affects people and situations. Through in-depth case study, this research explores the nature of evaluation use, and the related notion of evaluation influence, within the context of assessment in higher education. Despite a historical focus on compliance and accreditation, assessment contemporarily hinges on increasing the use of student learning evidence for decision making across many levels of an educational organization. This shift toward learning has positioned assessment as a context for evaluation theory and practice, one that offers a unique opportunity to study evaluation use and influence relative to various purposes for evaluation (i.e., accountability and learning). The findings suggested three problematics, or dilemmas, that shape the nature of evaluation use and influence in assessment: facilitating sensemaking processes, engaging systemic complexity, and attending to power and information gaps that exist within and between educational program models and their evaluative tools. Findings from this study also suggest that student learning evidence has a profound impact on educational programming, both at the individual student and program levels.
Understanding student learning evidence: a case study of evaluation use and evaluation influence for accountability and learning
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Created on 12/1/2017
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2017
- Keywords
- Accountability, Assessment, Evaluation influence, Evaluation use, Learning
- Subjects
- Educational evaluation
- Evaluation $x Methodology
- Education, Higher $x Evaluation
- Educational accountability