Thinking about Evaluation

Evaluation can often feel like a dirty word when we are in the classroom. As teachers, we don’t have time to think about “Evaluation with a capital E” as a feature in our day to day work. We know our students and we know our topics, we know when they are ready to move on or if they need extra support. Our students are assessed all the time, whether it is our class tests or even national standardised grading examinations. So why should we have to organise an evaluation of this type of a project?

All these concerns are completely valid and there is no assumption made within CEPNET that evaluation style questionnaires are critical components of the approach.

And here is the BUT…

But if you did feel that you have the time and you would like to be better able to understand the impact of this project with your students, we have a set of resources that you can use. As with all materials in these training modules, they have been extensively tested and tweaked as they have been finalised. Our teachers, principals, parents and guardians, our students and even school board members have completed these surveys and evaluation tools. Our aim has always been to better understand CEPNET. We truly want to know whether the project meets our objectives to create more empowered children, interested and willing to take action in their communities.

And guess what… it does meet these objectives.

Our evaluations have shown that the approach does deliver change in the classroom, change with our students and very importantly change for our teachers. Our specific approaches to carrying out action research, based on dialogue and discussion, based on the children taking charge, these approaches have been evaluated and are considered to have worked very successfully in each school, to the extent that in each school, the CEPNET approach is now embedded in the school practice. A high value has been placed on the model, the framework of competences does in fact link clearly to the schools’ commitments to national curricula and whole school planning.

This section is really then to give you the tools to decide if you would like to review, reflect and evaluate how CEPNET has worked in your classrooms, within your school community and with your children. The tools described below can be used to help you to plan your work for future implementation cycles if you see fit.

But these tools are there only if you feel like showcasing your own work in your own classroom and highlighting the change that you can see. You don’t have to “prove” that the approach works.

We have already done that for you. We have testimony and feedback and scientific evidence. We have written the reports and the studies. These are here for you below, as are the tools.

How about listening to one of our principals as you are thinking about the idea of evaluation, review and reflection. These skills are an important facet of your own professional development and CEPNET offers you the opportunity to bring these new approaches into your own specific pedagogic way of working.