Page 361 - DEDU504_EDUCATIONAL_MEASUREMENT_AND_EVALUATION_ENGLISH

Unit 31 : Formative and Summative Evaluation

Formative evaluation can help to strengthen horizontal structures and processes by creating and Notes
fostering feedback mechanisms and for a, enabling lessons to be shard. It can cultivate much
thinker networks of professional and informal contacts between levels of decision-making through
facilitating intra- and inter- organisational dialogue and learning.
Formative evaluation can also have important catalytic effects, mobilising staff around a course
of action, and engaging management thinking about future options. Patton introduced the idea
of ‘process use’ to describe the utility to stakeholders of being involved in the planning and
implementation of an evaluation, irrespective of findings and recommendations that occur. The
developmental and capacity building benefits accrue to staff as a side effect of a participative,
formative evaluation.
Although formative evaluation is commonly contrasted with summative evaluation, the distinction
is not always helpful or apposite.
That can inform summative assessment. In some programme contexts, a more fruitful approach
would be to see both types of evaluation as part of the same exercise.

31.1.3
Formative evaluation includes several evaluation types :
• needs assessment determines who needs the program, how great the need is, and what
might work to meet the need
• evaluability assessment determines whether an evaluation is feasible and how stakeholders
can help shape its usefulness
• structured conceptualization helps stakeholders define the program or technology, the target
population, and the possible outcomes
• implementation evaluation monitors the fidelity of the program or technology delivery
• process evaluation investigates the process of delivering the program or technology,
including alternative delivery procedures

The process of formative evaluation may be an important component in summative
evaluation; formative evaluation can produce early outcome measures which serve
as interim markers to programme effects; and by tracking changes and linkages
between inputs, outputs and outcomes it can help to identify causal mechanism.
31.1.4 Process of Formative Evaluation

The main steps involved
Step 1 : A first step is gaining the commitment of key stakeholders and programme actors at all
levels to a formative evalution as a collective learning and change-oriented process. This may
require among other things negotiation about access and the use of information, clarification of
roles and relationships, and agreement about what kinds of information will be relevant for
which kinds of stakeholders.
Step 2 : Building evaluation into programme design so that it is perceived as an essential tool for
managing the programme and helping it to adapt to local conditions within a dynamic
environment. This might include laying the basis for formative evaluation in the early stages of
needs assessment and evaluability assessment, as well as embedding formative evaluation into
ongoing organisational processes and structures. Successful formative evaluation depends on the
early adoption of an effective data collection strategy and in many cases a management information
database which allows evaluators and programme staff easy access to well organised programme
information.

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