chapter 9

Richards, J. (2001). Approaches to evaluation. In Curriculum development in language teaching (pp. 286-308). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The chapter states that evaluation of the language program is important to make that it is running the way it’s supposed to. There are different purposes to evaluation which include: formative evaluation that looks at what is working, what is not, and what the problems are; illuminative evaluation looks at how different aspects of the program are working by concentrating on the teaching and learning aspects; and summative evaluation looks at the effectiveness of the program.
There are two types of evaluators, insiders (people that deal directly with the program) and outsiders (evaluators who have no connection to the program). Teachers can give a formative evaluation of how the course is working while students can be the participants of the summative evaluation to see the product of the course. Outsiders are used to get an objective insight to the program.
After reading this chapter I’m beginning to wonder if the immersion program has ever been evaluated, and if so when was it done? I’d be interested to see what is working well and what needs improvement in the immersion program. It would be interesting to see why the two positions at our school keep changing teachers.