ABSTRACT
This chapter considers various aspects of evaluation before returning to consider the sense in which, and the extent to which, this may be true. It is important to bear in mind at the outset the distinction between informal and formal evaluation. Informal evaluation refers to the straightforward judgement of the teacher based on observation, it is an option that is plainly open and surely to be encouraged. Formal evaluation refers to any systematically organised and publicly scrutinisable means of evaluating. Evaluation of curriculum design is undertaken at early stages in order to help improve the design. Evaluation is necessary to any judgement of the success of a curriculum innovation, and thinking people are likely to want to know about such success or lack of it. The three of the central terms involved in arguments about the rival merits of systematic and informal techniques of observation and evaluation are: reliability, objectivity and validity.
