1.Evaluation for justification and accountability
-The need to render an account of the curriculum to agencies
2.Evaluation for improvement
-Designed to enhance or develop a particular aspect of curricular provision.As for me,I feel that no matter how great a curriculum is there is always room for improvement.Take Finland,as an example,they already have an amazing education system but they are constantly trying to improve themselves.According to a review I read online and many other websites,Hong Kong has the best education system.Bill Gates said this himself but I do not find this true but I will get to that later but my point is that although Hong Kong was listed as the best country for education,they constantly try to improve themselves which is something other countries should follow.They send their teachers for training programs and they make sure their teachers get feedback to improve themselves.I do not think Hong Kong has a good education system because I feel that they focus too much on test scores and maths and science.They do not make room for the arts.
Thankfully,there are many evaluation models we can follow to evaluate a curriculum.
The Saylor,Alexander and Lewis model-seek evaluation of these components:
-The goals
-Sub-goals
-Objectives
-The program of education a totality
-Specific segments of the education
-Instruction and evaluation program
There are two types of evaluation which are the product evaluation and process evaluation.
1.Product evaluation
Product evaluation is suppose to examine the impact of the program on the target audience,the quality and significance of outcomes and the extent to which the program is sustainable and transferable.This is really important because there are so many different types of audiences in the world.Not every nation is the same,that is why they have different types of education systems and curriculum to cater for their needs but at the same time curriculum implementers need to make sure that what they are implementing is of good quality for their students who are pursuing the curriculum to work anywhere in the world but the thing I find weird is that although English is the international language of this planet,why is it that so many countries do not make English a priority?I have been to Japan,China and Korea and we had a difficult time communicating with the people there because they do not study English.They do but much later in their curriculum.According to my tour guard,you are still able to survive in Japan if you do not know English.I also read an article on Facebook that many companies in China are interested in hiring Malaysians who can speak Mandarin and English since many of the people in China cannot speak English.Since English is so important I do understand why they do not make it a priority in their curriculum?This makes me really glad to be a Malaysian because I am able to speak English,Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia.
There are also advantages and disadvantages of product evaluation .
Advantages of product evaluation.
1.It is logical and rational-sure we want to make some assessment in the light of the intended curriculum purposes
2.It is straight forward to use
3.It is relatively economical
4.I can be applied at any level of the education system
Disadvantages of product evaluation
1.It uses easily measurable output-might neglect hard to measure outcomes such as students' moral,social or spiritual development.This is a point I really agree on.I really think that we Malaysians lack a lot when it comes to students' moral,social and spiritual development.Our moral education in Malaysia is a joke.Memorizing 36 moral definitions to me does not make you a better citizen in society.I have been to Japan before and I think their citizens practice high moral values.In Japan you hardly see any rubbish bins but the streets are still so clean.Way cleaner than any street in Malaysia.This is because Japanese people have been taught since a young age in school to always keep their country clean and to not litter.They were even taught to pick up rubbish on the street and throw them at their own homes.This is what I call good moral education.
2.It does not measure the range of multiple intelligence
Albert Eistein once said,if you judge a fish's ability by climbing a tree,it will believe its whole life that it is stupid.There are so many different kinds of people in this world with multiple intelligence.Maybe this video will help you understand.
There are people who are interpersonal learners.They are people smart.They understand the needs of people very well.For example,Nelson Mandela,Gandhi,Pope Francis and Mother Teresa.There are people who are body smart.For example,Lee Chong Wei,Pandelela Rinong,Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.These people have their own kind of talents.Sadly in our asian country we mostly focus on the logical-mathematical smart and we consider people who are not logic smart as stupid or dumb.This really needs to change
3.Ignores unplanned outcome and fail to explore the value and worth of the prescribed objectives and purposes
4.Neglects students' motivation and level of satisfaction with their courses of study.This is what I find quite weird.Although they are trying to evaluate the curriculum,they rarely ask us students for feedback and we are the target audience.
Furthermore,we have process evaluation which focuses on the perspectives and interpretations of participants,qualitative data and acknowledges multiple realities.There are four general concepts that should be measured for a process evaluation
-type of inputs
-activities
-outputs
-the integration of these components
Generally the suggested evaluation process contains nine steps :
1.Define the purpose and scope of the evaluation
2.Specify the Evaluation questions-what do you want to know?
3.Specify the Evaluation Design
4.Create the Data Collection Action Plan
5.Collect Data
6.Analyze Data
7.Document Findings
8.Disseminate Findings
9.Feedback to Program Improvement
There are many approaches to process evaluation such as :-
As for me,I think they each have their own strengths and weaknesses.It depends on the target audience you are evaluating the curriculum for.
Curriculum Issues were also touched on.
1.Academic area initiatives
a) Strengthening the academic programs
b) Diversification of programs
c) Personalising of the curriculum
Malaysia has done some changes such as KBSR/KBSM being changed to KSSR/KSSM and the delivery language change from Bm to English and to Bm again.Let me tell you about my sentiments regarding our country's change.I do not think they are doing a great job.I mean I give them credit for trying to change but the country's education system is still so exam based which is not something we need right now.We want to teach students to be better people to contribute to society.Here is something I found on Facebook about the Japanese Education system
And I think this is something we should really follow because students these days are studying for the sake of test scores and not really improving themselves.
2.Alternative schooling arrangements
a)Parental choice Eg,Homeschooling.To be honest I really wished I was homeschooled because I think I would have learnt more.This is the reason why so many people in the states want to homeschool their children because they find it more effective.This is because many teachers these days are not passionate about their jobs and they do not put in effort to teach their students.In my school,many teachers were like that.I depended on my tuition classes to learn things.Tuition teachers have to teach well and put in effort to their job because if they don't they won't get paid.That is why my tuition teachers were excellent.Sometimes I would skip school because I did not learn much at school and I find studying at home more effective.
b)School fees
c)Cluster schools
I think we should have cluster schools for quick students so that the students there can be taught at a faster space.
3.Billigual/bicultural education
I think Malaysia has done the right job by asking us to not only study Bahasa Malaysia but English as well because English is so important.I have been to Australia and I had no problem communicating with the people there because I have learnt English before as compared to some people living in Japan and Korea who have not learnt much English.I highly suggest parents sending their children to Chinese schools because you will be learning three languages and the more languages you know the easier it will be to find a job.
4.Cencorship
-Books
-Websites
Mr Wan told us that in countries like China they band websites like Youtube and Facebook because they feel that their citizens will misuse them somehow.
5.Religion in public education
I am quite thankful to be living in Malaysia where I can practice my own religion without interruption.I think that is the beauty of our country because we are free to practice our beliefs.I know that there are many conflicts right now in places like Israel or the middle east where christians are being persecuted for their faith.I feel thankful that we do not have religion conflicts in our country as compared to some schools in other countries.There some schools in the states that segregates their citizens.The black students will go to a school with low quality facilities whereas the white students will get the better education.This is very unfair and it has to change
6.Scheduling arrangements
-Schools hours
I honestly think that our school hours are too long.A student's attention span is not long enough for our school hours.That is why I prefer studying in university where the hours are short so that I can fully concentrate.
-School year
I also think that we have too many days of schooling.I like the academic calendar of the schools in the states.They would have three months off per year and during those three month holidays,students would get to do amazing things like travel or do volunteering work or internships or even explore what they love and what their passion is
-Class and School size
The class size is Malaysia is way too big.There will be more than 40 students in the class and teachers would not be able to cater to every single one of them.Hence,many are left behind.
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