Meaning of Curriculum Evaluation

Curriculum is defined as the sum of all experiences, which are to be supplied in an educational institution. According to Wheeler (1967) curriculum indicates the planned experiences presented to the learners under the guidance of the college. Curriculum has been defined by Tanner & Tanner (1975) as the planned guided finding out experience and intended understanding out-comes formulated through a systematic reconstruction of information and experiences below the auspices of the school for the learner’s continuous and willful development in academic, private & social competence.

Evaluation basically is the provision of data for the sake of facilitating choice producing at various stages of curriculum development. This data could pertain to the program as a total entity or only to some of its elements. Evaluation also implies the selection of criteria, collection and evaluation of data. It contains acquiring info for use in judging the worth of a programmer and process. It is a complete term and transcends standardized tests covering all means of ascertaining the outcomes of construction.

Evaluation of curriculum is an integral and crucial portion of the entire process of curriculum development. It is a continuous activity and not a “tail-finish-process”. Evaluation and planning are complementary processes which occur almost simultaneously and constantly. Organizing is created on the basis of evaluation and vice versa. Even so, as a separate state evaluation has its own entity. The value of curriculum evaluation is to determine the value of the curriculum itself is the curriculum acceptable for the specific group of students with whom it is getting utilized? Are the instructional techniques chosen, the ideal choices in the light of the objectives sought? Is the content the ideal that could be chosen? Are the supplies advisable for instructional goal proper and the greatest accessible for the purpose envisaged?

Curriculum has been defined in several ways by different discovered people. It can be summed up as: A school’s written courses of study and other curriculum supplies. The topic content taught to the students. The courses offered in a school, and the totality of planned finding out experiences offered to students in a school.

1. To create a new curriculum: If we need to develop a new curriculum then it is quite critical that we evaluate an already current curriculum and then change it to suit our requirement, as per the require of our program and organization.
2. To overview a curriculum below implementation: It is quite crucial soon after implementation of a curriculum to get normal feedbacks on it. If essential amendments can be made to it for effective realization of all the objectives connected to it.
3. It is essential to eliminate obsolete concepts and practices from curriculum and consist of existing developments in the curriculum. In order to make objective decisions about inclusion or deletion of content or practices, curriculum evaluation will be extremely necessary.
4. To discover out the effectiveness of a curriculum: Curriculum evaluation is also required to know the effectiveness of a curriculum in terms of the achievement of its immediate as properly as lengthy term objectives.

As a result, curriculum evaluation can help us take objective choices on improvement and implementation of curriculum. Curriculum evaluation will let us know regardless of whether the goals and tasks that we have set are really being achieved or not. The curriculum is a list of planned studying experiences offered to the students below the direction of the college.

Types of Curriculum Evaluation According to Scriven, following are the three main types

Formative Evaluation. It happens in the course of the course of curriculum development. Its objective is to contribute to the improvement of the educational programme. The merits of a programme are evaluated throughout the approach of its improvement. The evaluation benefits provide details to the programme developers and allow them to appropriate flaws detected in the programme.

Summative Evaluation. In summative evaluation, the final effects of a curriculum are evaluated on the basis of its stated objectives. It takes spot right after the curriculum has been fully created and place into operations.

Diagnostic Evaluation. Diagnostic evaluation is directed towards two purposes either for placement of students effectively at the outset of an instructional level (such as secondary school), or to uncover the underlying cause of deviancies in student studying in any field of study.