Learning to Evaluate

David Williams

Conducting a keynote presentation and workshop in Taipei, Taiwan this past November was not an unusual undertaking for MSE Professor David Williams. Sharing evaluation theory is an important aspect of his work.

The Taiwan experience resulted when a spouse of one of Williams' students needed a keynote speaker for the 16th International Symposium and Book Fair on English Teaching. Williams conducted a workshop titled Applying the Principles of Evaluation to Improve Learning and Teaching of English and presented a session on Improving Learning and Teaching of English Through Evaluation, Measurement, and Assessment-- both based on core evaluation principles which Williams typically places at the forefront of his presentations. "In the particular case in Taiwan, they were interested in teaching people English, reading, writing, conversations, and so on in Taiwan by Taiwanese people, so I tried to apply the same principles to that context," Williams explained.

In Taiwan, Williams followed a pattern he has used in previous presentations. He invited his audience to think about some key issues, beginning with the question "What is evaluation?" "It is essentially a way of comparing what is to what should be," Williams defined. He then gave several ways to decide how it "should be."

First, Williams identifies a stakeholder, a person who has an interest in the environment, and then works with that individual to clarify the main factors for evaluation. In doing so, they identify and establish criteria that the subject should meet in order to be successful. "That involves them thinking about their values- what aspects they really think are important-and those become the standards and criteria," Williams explained. "Criteria are the things [the subject] should be, and standards are how well--according to the criteria--[something should be done] in order to be successful."

"Once you've clarified all of those issues, you can really get down to the business of finding out what you want to know. In the evaluation process people want to know a lot of things, and usually they want to know what's going on, and then how well things are progressing compared to the criteria," Williams further explained.

Williams remains convinced that learning to evaluate is valuable for everyone. "A lot of people make snap judgments and evaluations on things that they regret later on, and I think that if I can help people think through how they are doing evaluation and how they can do it better, [that could make] a difference for everybody."

The opportunity to speak in Taiwan, evaluating the way the people of Taiwan teach English to their countrymen, suggests additional possibilities for exploration within the field of evaluation. Williams admits that he is developing a strong interest in cross-cultural evaluation. "When you go from one culture to another, the values shift. Values are essential to evaluation, so I would be looking at how clarifying [differences in] the values across different cultures [affects] how evaluation is done," he clarified.

Williams is considering an offer to conduct an evaluation study in Guatemala. "I was hesitant because I felt I didn't really know what [Guatemalan] culture was like," he reflected. "I've been there maybe four times for various reasons, and during that time I've been trying to understand their culture better. I think I may propose to [the group suggesting the study] that we do the evaluation now," he noted.

14 May 2008