| |
Assessing the value of general education programs: the addition of meaning-making to the e-value-ation process
by Caroline Presno Introduction: Its Meaning is Its Value Evaluating a program without an attempt to develop an understanding of underlying processes and functions is like drinking from an empty bottle to satisfy a thirst, a vacuous and frustrating enterprise. Evaluation should not only be an attempt to quantitatively measure outcomes, but also a process of meaning-making. Evaluation has been described as, "a meaning-making technology which is applied to the curriculum, instruction and learning" (Hill, 1997, p. 4) in educational institutions. The term "meaning," however, is an abstract concept that needs to be defined and broken down into more specific components if it is to be applied to the practical evaluation process that requires specificity for success. So then, what is meaning? In Plato's view, "the meaning of the world is its value" (Hartman, 1967, p. 49). Still, if meaning is defined as value, then a more precise idea of value that is so much a part of e-valu-ation is necessary. Hartman (1967) by offering the logic of value in his book, The Structure of Value: Foundations of Scientific Axiology, provided a general definition of value together with a description of specific types of values. The purpose of this article is to, first, define value in general, secondly, describe Hartman's value dimensions including extrinsic, systemic and intrinsic and thirdly, discuss their significance in relation to answering the evaluation question, Is this college or university's general education program valuable? To Have and to Have Not How can an individual decide whether or not someone or something has value? According to Hartman (1967, Presno & Presno, 1980), value is the fulfillment of a thing by its concept. In other words, when a thing matches a person's concept or idea of it, the thing is thought to be worthy, exceptional, valid and good. By contrast, a thing that does not fulfill its concept or definition is considered not valuable, inferior, inadequate, wrong, deleterious, or just plain bad. So, in determining the value of a general education program, it is necessary to compare and contrast whether specific instances such as those under the categories of institutional practices and student outcomes correspond to the chosen concept of general education. In order to find out if general education is valuable at a particular institution, the actual program as it exists must be compared to the concepts of general education held by involved members which include faculty, staff, administrators, students, the community and the state and federal government. The Value Dimensions In order to further dissect the concept of value, Hartman (1967) discussed it in terms of three categories or dimensions: Extrinsic, systemic and intrinsic. It is important to note that each of these three dimensions may be applied to a single person including the self, to a group of people or to things like an institution or a program. The following are descriptions of the three types of valuing. Extrinsic If it's practical, it has extrinsic value. Hartman (1967) defined extrinsic value as a thing fulfilling an abstract concept or class concept. In a class, each thing shares common properties with all the other things so something that is considered good or valuable would be part of the class community and correspond to the mutual characteristics (Presno & Presno, 1980). Thus, a "good" faculty member would be one that adheres to the class of faculty members that generally includes the aspects of teaching, research and community service. A faculty member who meets these criteria not only stands a good chance of getting tenure, but also has extrinsic or practical value. Conversely, a thing that does not adequately represent its class lacks extrinsic value. The use of words and phrases such as excellent, four stars, two thumbs up, satisfactory or poor are cues of pragmatic thinking and that one is judging someone or something's practical value. Practical value is the value dimension that comprises the bulk of the evaluation process. Evaluators looking for the pragmatic worth of a general education program want to know if it's useful for the college or university to have and useful for the students to take. To assess the utility and effectiveness of their program, Longwood College developed the General Education Course Criteria Survey that centered around whether or not specific general education courses met the 9 written criteria of general education outlined by the college (Smith, 1993). Thus, if students answered "strongly agree" to questions like ...
| |
