The formative evaluation of educational curricula

One of my chief preoccupations at the University of Durban-Westville is with the formative evaluation of departmental curricula. Widening access to students from a variety of backgrounds entails creating more innovative and relevant courses; it is my conviction that the evaluation of educational programmes and courses can result in these modifications being made.

Formative evaluation helps staff to modify their curricula whilst courses are being taught and is thus not merely an evaluation of what has already happened. It is action research dedicated to the improvement of course design and teaching methodology. An important component of this formative evaluation is that of student feedback; the completion of questionnaires is however not an essential component of the evaluation I have used.

In this account of my research I discuss various research methodologies employed and their usefulness in improving teaching practice.

This paper also surveys some of the problems inherent in formative evaluation and suggests methods to overcome them.