The Evaluation of Educational Innovation

Abstract

This article presents a model for the evaluation of educational innovation in a context of transformation. The model incorporates formative, summative and illuminative evaluation goals and emphasizes the need to locate the innovation which is being evaluated within the context and policy framework of its operation. The evaluation framework provided by the model takes into account the full range of variables impacting on innovative educational practice and subjects the innovation, along with its transforming educational context, to the scrutiny of evaluation. The article thus presents a 10-stage generalized evaluation model which can be used as a framework for the evaluation of any type of educational innovation. Each stage in this 10-stage evaluation process is expanded on, discussed in detail in the article and illustrated with examples from the evaluation of an innovative intervention at a tertiary institution in South Africa.