Editorial
Ban happy sheets! — Understanding and using evaluation

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Summary

Evaluating learning in the complex environments of health and education can be fraught with difficulties. Teaching sessions are customarily ‘qualitatively’ evaluated by participants filling in simple forms which indicate how they found a course — colloquially called ‘happy sheets’. These forms place an emphasis on whether participants enjoyed their training rather than benefitted from it; and respondent's comments can focus more on the quality of the catering and whether they liked the facilitator rather than formally measuring educational effectiveness or what behaviours, skills or attitudes will be different as a result of the input.

Part of an educator's role is to present a rationale for the value of their work, and to continuously review and improve it. An understanding of evaluation itself and an awareness of the politics and pressures that can be associated with the act of evaluating are vital to support the measurement of quality and the improvement of teaching.

This article calls for an end to superficial measurements and for Educationalists to make evaluation a meaningful and integral part of their educational output. It also raises the importance of involving participants in the process of evaluation and making them aware of its potential worth and provides some practical suggestions for Nurse Educators.

Section snippets

What is Evaluation? (and Why Should Educationalist's Care?)

Expenditure in health, social care and education is being scrutinised in the current economic climate and is the target of financial cuts. There is a growing movement partly in response to this situation to measure activity within both nursing and nurse education in terms of efficiency. That is evaluating its proficiency and effectiveness; which range from the rise of benchmarking and standardisation to Griffiths et al.'s (2008) work on ‘Metrics’ which asks if you can measure nursing.

In a

Why Evaluate?

It's important to understand how evaluation can help educationalists maintain profile, budgets and strategic importance but evaluation should not be seen merely a defensive measure. Behn (2003) considers evaluation vital in terms of ongoing improvement, allocation of resources, and comparison with other providers, efficiency and effectiveness. Hillier (2005) explores the idea of ‘Closing the circle’…stating that quality assurance is part of adding value and that ‘good’ evaluation should measure

The Problem of Frontloading…

There is an understanding within nursing that productive learning often follows a ‘cycle’ for example in reflective and action learning. Teaching and planning also follow that pattern, with the evaluation proactively feeding back to development and improvements. Arguably nurse educationalists ‘frontload’ their efforts in terms of course design and planning and give less emphasis on evaluating the output. Sackett (1997) notes that where evaluation does take place it is often classed as ‘Grade 3

Kirkpatrick's Model and the Rise of the ‘Happy Sheet’

A commonly utilised model of evaluation is Kirkpatrick's (1959) ‘Four stage evaluation’; the first stage of which measures the reactions of the learner — what they thought about the input. The second level rates the increase in their knowledge or capability. The third looks at behaviour change and the fourth stage gauges the effect on the environment that results from the participants ‘improved’ performance.

These stages can be time consuming and problematic to assess and most training

Difficulties — Valuing Evaluation…

Chen (1990) explores ideas about ‘the theory-driven evaluator’ as one stakeholder among many; it stresses the impossibility of neutrality in evaluation — just as the activity of researching alters one's findings, so positionality in evaluation is also an important consideration. Evaluation is the act of valuing or ascribing meaning, who ‘you’ are, your interests, and expertise are key to what you consider worthwhile and how you construct value. This puts some aspects of evaluation however

Managing Expectations

The importance of positioning of evaluation centrally is vital to its ongoing utility; by talking to participants and commissioners and supporting the growth of learning communities, evaluation can be moved from the periphery. Educationalists, participants and commissioners can be encouraged to develop a wider understanding of its significance and of the importance of their contributions. By making evaluations participative and seeing them as ongoing pieces of work, rather than ‘one way’ end

Some Suggestions to Enable Successful Evaluation in Practice

Attree (2006) observes that the evidence base for evaluating healthcare education is not extensive and that the confounding variables are hard to control, resources are scarce and that there is a need for increased application of theory to practice. She continues that this is best achieved by collaboration with stakeholders and across disciplines. Nurse educationalists must robustly engage with evaluation and research to ensure that the provision they make is appropriate and of good quality.

Conclusion

Evaluation is vital to good practice in delivering a cycle of continuously improving education. It can be complicated and time consuming to evaluate a course meaningfully — although not impossible. Without evaluation there can be no measurable outcomes which call into question the providers' ethical responsibilities around providing value for money and a quality product.

However there are issues about which educationalists should be aware of — including those that arise when the aims of the

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