Tag: Teaching

Program personnel plan and implement programs as a way to address the needs of intended users and their communities. These needs may be rooted in learning, recreation, behaviour, culture and health and well-being to name a few. Programs are often spearheaded by individual champions or working groups. Their focus is typically on program activities and the challenge of implementation. Rarely do they plan to learn, in any systematic way, about program design, about how the program is working or about how it could be improved following implementation.  This is an issue especially when data-informed decisions have to be made about whether programs should be supported, expanded, downsized or allowed to end.

The overall learning objectives for PME 828 are to:

• Understand the history and purposes of educational evaluation 
• Understand the factors and practices that contribute to a quality evaluation
• Understand current models of evaluation and the needs they serve 
• Make decisions that lead to a defensible design for systematic evaluative inquiry
• Collect data about program processes, stakeholder  learning or performance and accurately interpret their meaning.Make appropriate judgments about the meaning of evaluation findings
• Critique (using current literature and principles of evaluative inquiry examined in GDPI 802) the purposes, processes and methods proposed for evaluating a program
• Take leadership in promoting effective evidence-informed program decision-making 
• Report effectively to program or  organizational stakeholders what could be learned through evaluation activities 
• Take leadership in promoting evidence-informed program and policy decision-making 
• Mentor colleagues interested in learning more about their programs
• Be able to argue the strengths and limitations of evidence-informed decision making 

Course is offered in:
Professional Master of Education, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University

Course authors: Drs. Lyn Shulha, Michelle Searle, Chi Yan Lam

Sessions Taught: Winter 2020, Winter 2019, Winter 2018, Fall 2017, Summer 2017

The assessment of learning and achievement is a global phenomenon. Over the last 2 decades there has been considerable research demonstrating how well conceived assessment can be a powerful force both in supporting learning, and as a mechanism for individual empowerment. Yet, no matter how clearly assessment policies are defined, how concisely strategies for implementing assessment are described, and how many sample instruments are available for adoption or adaptation, the planning and implementing of assessment in classrooms continues to be a complex “wicked problem”.

Students who complete this course will develop a clear sense of the multiple and overlapping purposes for assessment and be better positioned to reason, justify, and communicate their decision-making in assessment to students, their parents and administrators. In addition, they will become more confident in using assessment information to create summaries of student achievement.

The overall learning objectives for PME 827 are to:

• To examine theories that underpin contemporary assessment practices.
• To explore the complexity of planning and implementing classroom assessment.
• To develop the competencies necessary to become a school leader in classroom assessment.
• To examine issue of quality–validity, reliability, and fairness–in classroom assessment.

This course is offered in:
Professional Master of Education, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University

Course authors: Drs. Chi Yan Lam, and Stefan Merchant

Sessions Taught: Fall 2016, Summer 2017, Winter 2016

This course will guide students in conducting systematic evaluative inquiry in support of data-informed program decision-making. Students will examine the multiple purposes of program evaluation, applying the principles, methods and logic inherent in the needs of targeted program personnel and decision makers.

The overall learning objectives for GDPI 802 are:

• To develop an understanding of theoretical frameworks for inquiring into social programs, their organizational structures, learning activities, and outputs
• To develop an understanding of how to inquire into social programs and develop program evaluation plans
• To develop engage in professional dialogues about program inquiry and evaluation within a community of evaluation practice
• To articulate complex understandings and response to dilemmas in program evaluation theory and practice
• To apply understandings about program evaluation theory to a specific context of evaluation practice

Course Offered in:

• Graduate Diploma in Professional Inquiry, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University
• Professional Master of Education, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University

Sessions Taught: Summer 2019, Winter 2019, Fall 2019, Summer 2018