181 - Developing and Guiding Meta-Learning About Evaluation: The Process of Collaborative Ungrading in Academic Settings

Abstract Information: Effective program evaluation requires collaboration with stakeholders to identify community, group, and individual needs and make sustainable improvements. However, traditional academic approaches often fail to teach students the collaborative skills and evaluative thinking necessary for successful program evaluation. Taking a meta-learning approach to teaching evaluation can allow instructors to guide students on a path to learning through experience, where instead of assuming group work is automatically collaborative instructors can make these intimate classroom collaborations become an important component of engaging in evaluation work. Instead of using presentations simply as a way to communicate evaluation proposals and logic models, allowing students to learn the methods and skills behind presenting can be emphasized as a part of meta-learning. Current grading structures in education often rely on letter grades, despite the fact that program evaluation emphasizes feedback loops and communication with stakeholders. Ungrading (Blum 2020), a pedagogical approach that incorporates feedback loops and reflective practices, can provide a more effective way to teach evaluation concepts and theories. This presentation explores methods for guiding and supporting students in an academic setting to teach them about evaluation practices in a way that emphasizes collaboration, social justice, and respect. Examples of grading rubrics and syllabi will be provided to help instructors adopt a pragmatic and grounded approach to teaching program evaluation.

Relevance Statement: This proposal seeks to bridge the gap between academic learning and pragmatic direct service practice of program evaluation. To do so, academic status quos must be addressed directly through shifts in constructing grading rubrics, assignment guidelines, instructor feedback loops, and how meta-learning is directly used as a part of the process. The implications of using ungrading are attuned to structuring ongoing feedback and analysis that may both lead to increased instructor guidance and increased practical learning for students. As an additional impact, such structures may lead to a more holistic understanding of program evaluation strategies being learned by students who may not become program evaluators but may gain a greater appreciation for the use of evaluation as a part of their future careers.