INTRODUCTION:

One of the key concerns to emerge from the education reform movement of the last decade has been that of improving the performance of educational personnel subsequently, as performance expectations of teachers, administrators and other professional personnel have been highlighted, so has the need for high quality performance evaluation system. And despite the centrality of personnel evaluation to organizational effectiveness the joint committee on standards for educational evaluation found that educational organizations have frequently been in effective in developing and conducting evaluation system.

The evaluation standards are meant to contribute to the professionalization of evaluation. It enhances the credibility, quality and trust worthiness of evaluation.

Evaluation in education is the process of judging the effectiveness of educational experience through careful appraisal, It involves measurement but it is different from it. Measurement is appraisal in terms of a fixed standard whereas evaluation implies the use of relative and flexible standards.

Evaluation in the past:

It was considered as an process of collecting, recording, assembling and interpretation. Evaluation was based on objectives that were determined previously by the faculty and individual teachers.

A complete evaluation program in Nursing would comprise of

1) Evaluating achievement of learners by a terminal written examination.

2) Evaluating mainly on cognitive development

3) Affective and psychomotor domain was given less percentage of attention.

4) Not a comprehensive evaluation system

Evaluation is an integral part of the education process without evaluation student achievement would not take place to the level of learning anticipated. Teacher evaluation should be based on effective measurement instruments of validity, reliability and practicality. Because testing in any format measures student maximum performance, teachers should create conditions under which students will be able to demonstrate their best possible performance. These conditions include adequate preparation of the students to take the test. Adequate preparation includes the imparting of information, skills and attitudes that will facilitate student’s maximum performance on the test.

Present Scenario

In the present scenario examinations are conducted in both subjective as well as objective type. There are many models for objective examination system in nursing there is wide variation in evaluation formats used by individual institutes.

Teacher evaluation systems are fair if supported by sound statistical methodologies for evaluating student progress the teacher however cannot weigh in on the student project if they are biased in any fashion strong adherence to guidelines of outcome or criteria based evidence will lead the teacher to the worth of student learning.

The evaluation in the present Nursing is much concerned about the skills that are of importance with the other element of the instructional process. It requires that the teachers know how to devise, use and interpret good tests and other evaluation instrument of her own; she should understand the basic concepts of measurement like validity and reliability.

The means of evaluating the outcome of learning in the present is problem based learning situational tests, standardized tests, rating scales and integrated teaching.

The purpose of evaluation in the present are

1) Examine performance of students in all domains

2) Objectives are adjusted to meet the needs of different groups of students

3) The previous knowledge and skills of students are considered while teaching and evaluating

4) Pretests are given to analyze the results through post test and to identify whether the Teaching- Learning objectives are really attained.

Nursing evaluation in the present state encompasses a whole lot of procedure to measure the knowledge skills and attitude that a graduate of nursing should posses to perform as a professional. Evaluation is a measure of performance which can be used as a mechanism for three important aspects of learning situation namely a measure of level of student performance, an induction of the effectiveness of teaching situation and a measure of the appropriateness of the content input.

The major questions that need to be answered in the content of evaluation are what should be assessed?

Evaluation in the future

Evaluation in the future is the means of helping the individual or a group to become self-directing. It assists in establishment of definite goals, which help in achieving criteria for desirable changes.

It provides a procedure for collecting evidence in order to make judgments, which is the foundation stone for future planning.

The means of evaluating an individual in the future will be very much focused on completely based evaluation process.

To achieve competency based outcome, evaluation process goes through four phases:

These are

(1) Preparation phase

(2) Assessment phase

(3) Evaluation phase

(4) Reflection phase

1) Preparation Phase:- In this phase lot of ground work is needed where in the facilitator work is needed where in the facilitator and learners objectives are to be considered. The teacher who acts as a facilitator of learning is seen by Rogers (1983), as a provider of learning resources and as a person who simultaneously shares his knowledge and his feeling with the learners. Quinn (1995) underlines the importance of the relationship between the learner and the facilitator characterizing it as a central element for meaningful learning. This relationship requires particular qualities of the facilitator such as warmth, genuineness, trust, acceptance and empathetic understanding. (Rogers 1983) According to Burnard (1992) these qualities entail that the facilitator treats others as equal human beings with interest in the relationship which is then created between them and himself.

2) Assessment phase:- Assessment has always been a sequence of teaching as teaching and evaluating are integrate parts of one learning process (while 1994) As while (1991) states learning which she characterizes as sophisticated, is a complex activity and its evaluation part consists a stubborn problem which always presented many difficulties for the assessors (wood 1986). The three dimensions which ought to be assessed consist of the cognitive, psychomotor and affective domain of learning. The assessment of the three domains provides a more holistic picture of student’s performance or students abilities upon specific competencies.

3) Evaluation phase:- The teacher interprets the assessment information and makes judgments about student progress. Based on the judgments or evaluations, teachers make decisions about student learning program and report on progress to student’s parents and appropriate school personnel.

4) The Reflection phase:- Reflection assists the teacher in making decisions concerning improvements or modifications to subsequent teaching and evaluation reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning (Boud, D, Keogh, R. and Walker, D.(1985) P 43. Reflections turning experience into learning London: Kogar page)

The importance of reflection :- Reflection enables us to (1) Be conscious of our potential for bias and discrimination (2) make the best use of the knowledge available (3) challenge and develop the existing professional knowledge base (4) avoid past mistakes (5) maximum our own opportunities for learning.

Competency based evaluation:- Competency based learning or competency based education and training is an approach to teaching and learning concrete skills than abstract learning. It differs from other non-related approaches in that the unit of learning is extremely fine grained. Rather than a course or a module every individual skill/learning outcome, known as a competency, is one single unit. Learners work on one competency at a time which is likely a small component of a larger learning goal. The student is evaluated on the individual competency, and only once they have mastered it do they move on to others.

Competency based learning is learner focused and work naturally with independent study and with the instructor in the role of facilitator. Most other learning methods use summative testing, competency based learning requires master of every individual learning outcome making it very well suited to learning credentials, in which safety is an issue. With summative testing a student who has 80% in an evaluation may have an 80% mastery of all learning outcomes or may have no mastery what –so-ever of 20% of the learning outcomes. Further this student may be permitted to move on to higher learning and still be missing some abilities that are crucial to that higher learning.

Completely profiles assist in affective learning and development by identifying the behaviors, knowledge, skills and abilities that is necessary for successful performance as a nurse.

CONCLUSION:

Competency based education is defined as or characterized by a program of study which clearly defined ,concrete ,measureable objectives of which every student participating in the program must have demonstrated mastery upon program completion . As compared with the traditional approach, the competency based approach potentially lead to individualized flexible training, transparent standards and increased public accountability. We should be cautions of adopting the competency based approach universally across stages of nursing training for which well-defined and validated competencies are unavailable. After all, it is just one of many potentially useful approaches that may have a role at various stages of the educational progress.

A trend in education has been the move toward competency or outcomes-based programs of study (e.g. Kuhlich, 1991). This trend seems to be global initiative, as research investigating and discussing competency-based education comes from all regions of the world (e.g. Fretwell andpritz,1994: Grootings 1994; Hargraves, 1995: Stennet, 1984. Stevenson, 1992).

In summary, based on student perceptions, it appears that from the perspective of the learning of specific content, taking ownership of one’s own learning and developing is an integrated view of the theory and practice of a specific discipline, competency –based programs have many advantages over traditional programs. Regardless of mode of program delivery, include student appreciation for a warm, caring teacher as well as a need for variety in teaching methods to meet students learning need and so do we need more and more evaluation systems to come up to accommodate the evaluation in competency based education system . Formats and new methodologies need to be researched and focused on competency based nursing education which in turn is going to enhance nursing education and practice in India.

REFERENCES:

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Received on 22.10.2013 Modified on 06.11.2013

Int. J. Adv. Nur. Management 1(1): Oct.- Dec., 2013; Page 15-17