Evaluation as a Collaborative Activity to Learn Content Knowledge in a Graduate Course

Abstract

Teaching graduate students to conduct evaluations is typically relegated to evaluation methods courses. This approach misses an opportunity for students to collaboratively use evaluation skills to explore content. This article examines a graduate course, Issues in Adult Basic Education, in which students learned evaluation methods concurrently with the course’s core content. Students and the professor collaboratively conducted an evaluation of professional development among adult basic education (ABE) providers exploring the following question: How is professional development conducted for ABE faculty, and how might it differ between community-based organizations and community and technical colleges? Based on the findings, students generated a report, which they shared with evaluation participants at local community and technical colleges and community-based organizations. The experiences described in this article suggest the applicability of this approach—infusing evaluation work into a content course—to graduate courses in other disciplines.