Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/17210
Title: Modelling the influences of evaluation on school principals: Towards evaluation capacity building
Contributor(s): Ikin, Kerrie Beryl (author); McClenaghan, Peter  (author)
Publication Date: 2015
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/17210
Abstract: School reviews form part of many school systems' evaluation frameworks, most often with the dual purpose of accountability and improvement. With some modifications, such reviews also have potential as evaluation-capacity-building activities. This article demonstrates how to create evaluation capacity building by combining formative and summative evaluation in school reviews that can deliver both accountability and school improvement. Using a traditional school-review structure as a starting-point, a new school-review strategy was developed that engaged school principals as evaluators in ways that boosted evaluation capacity in their institutions. Two groups of principals were studied. From the case study that ensued it was found that principals who advised only as team members in other principals' schools primarily engaged in single-loop learning. On the other hand, principals in the second group had to understand and apply criteria in the evaluation of their own schools, design evaluation strategies and techniques, and later reflect critically on the quality of evaluation practices and capacities in order to improve the values and assumptions influencing their own practices. This group demonstrated engagement in an integrated and experiential learning cycle of experiencing, reflecting, thinking and acting, and hence double-loop learning. In other words, the enhanced capacity of this latter group of principals included new skills, knowledge and understandings that became embedded in the culture and practices of their schools. This article breaks new ground by establishing the limitations of a composite model of evaluation influence derived from current literature. Further, it uses empirical data from field trials to propose a new model that emphasises the role of catalytic values and double-loop learning in situations where leaders become transformational and formative evaluators in empowered communities of practice.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 15(1), p. 19-27
Publisher: Australasian Evaluation Society (AES)
Place of Publication: Australia
ISSN: 2515-9372
1035-719X
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 150310 Organisation and Management Theory
150311 Organisational Behaviour
150305 Human Resources Management
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 350709 Organisation and management theory
350710 Organisational behaviour
350503 Human resources management
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 930402 School/Institution Community and Environment
930401 Management and Leadership of Schools/Institutions
930403 School/Institution Policies and Development
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 169999 Other education and training not elsewhere classified
160204 Management, resources and leadership
160205 Policies and development
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
UNE Business School

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