Evaluating and Revising the Physical Education Instructional Program

Purpose of Program Evaluation Document the validity and/or importance of the program outcomes Document the way in which the program is being implemented Determine the effect of the program on participants Provide recommendations for revisions based on identified weaknesses

Decisions involved in program evaluation Planning Decisions What should we do? Recycling Decisions Did we do it? Organizing Decisions How should we do it? Implementing Decisions Are we doing it? Curriculum Outcomes Educational Experiences

Developing the evaluation plan Curriculum Outcomes: Planning Decisions –What is the purpose of this evaluation? Adopting a new curriculum? Discontinuing a program? Implementation of new instructional strategies? Program review for accreditation? –Who is a part of this phase? Typically, you the teacher, other peer teachers, at least one administrator, perhaps one community member

Developing the evaluation process Educational Experiences: Organizing Decisions –What is needed for this program to be successful? Facilities? Equipment? Scheduling? Class size? Teacher prep for the experiences –Is this the current status within this program?

Developing the evaluation process Educational Experiences: Implementing decisions –Are we following the curriculum? –Do the learners know what they are supposed to learn? –Do learners have pre-requisite skills based on the scope and sequence Have we implemented the curriculum model appropriately?

Developing the evaluation process Curriculum Outcomes: Recycling decisions –Based on the planned outcomes, the decisions made through organization and implementation, did we meet our outcomes? Did learning occur? Did we accomplish our goals? –If yes? Do we continue this curriculum? –If partly yes? What do we need to change to meet our goals and promote student learning? –If no? Do we discontinuing this curriculum? Was the program effective in meeting goals? Do we need program improvement to meet goals?

Recycling Decisions Program Improvement –Based on documentation of individual student achievement Consider possible changes in program objectives or modifications of the existing program standards Consider changes in instructional strategies Consider whether the program is meeting student need for relevant learning

Recycling Decisions Program Effectiveness –Program evaluation seeks to describe the number of students who are making gains on the program objectives –Evaluation of the program is merely an extension of the evaluation of individual students

Recycling Decisions: Program Effectiveness ☺Did change occur? ☺ Was the change statistically significant? ☺ Was the effect educationally significant? ☺ Can effects be replicated? ☺ Did the observed effects result from the program?

Recycling Decisions: Program Effectiveness If students don’t meet the program outcomes, one must consider: –Characteristics of the teacher –Characteristics of the students –Characteristics of the instructional setting or context –Characteristics of program implementation Strength of relationships often provide insight regarding potential program revisions

Determining needed changes Knowledge of ‘what’ to improve must be supplemented with information suggesting ‘why’ the weakness exists Weakness observed in program implementation usually results from a lack of knowledge about the process that is involved in planning, implementing, or evaluating; therefore, INSERVICE

Recommendations Recommended improvements tend to focus on changing the activity content –If changing content, will the new content be more relevant to the goals and desired outcomes? How will new content align with purpose of the curriculum model? –Would changes in instruction increase the quality of the program? –Are new activities sequence patterns adapted to student readiness? are resources available? Be ready to communicate the evaluation results to school community, regardless of the analysis outcome

Practical Application Based on the scope chart developed for your curriculum model, how would you go about evaluating this program once implemented? –Describe the process of the program evaluation –Describe the data to be collected –Describe how you would analyze the data –Describe how you would utilize the data to implement change