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Assessment, Evaluation, Appraisal and Accountabilitygence of several different models of, or approaches to, curriculum evaluation.Evaluation and curriculum modelsIt is also important to recognize that the model of evaluation we adopt mustmatch the model of curriculum planning we have adopted (Tawney, 1973).Otherwise there will be mismatch and distortion. In particular, the adoption ofa model of evaluation which is based on the prespecification of curriculumobjectives will have the effect of distorting an approach to the curriculumwhich is procedural or developmental, not least because its criteria of evaluationwill not reflect the purposes of the planners or the teachers. It will be comparableto seeking to discover how many goals Donald Bradman scored in hislast test match at the Oval.However, too often the assumption has been made, and continues to be made,that curriculum evaluation is possible only if curriculum objectives are prestated.Early discussion of curriculum evaluation certainly tended to be located wellwithin the context of the simple behavioural objectives model of curriculum.Ralph Tyler, for example, is quite explicit on this point. ‘The process of evaluationis essentially the process of determining to what extent the educational objectivesare actually being realized by the program of curriculum and instruction’(1949:105–6).A good deal of both the theory and the practice of curriculum evaluation,therefore, as we saw in Chapter 5 was the case with many of the SchoolsCouncil’s projects, has been set within the context of an objectives-based curriculummodel, and for this reason evaluation has been seen as centrally concernedto help with the framing and subsequent modification of objectives, theassessment of the suitability of the learning experiences to the achievement ofthe objectives set and the measurement of the degree to which the prestatedobjectives are being or have been attained. The demand for accountability towhich we have already referred also tends to encourage the use of this kind ofmodel, as we can see from current policies.Thus, although there may seem to be a prima facie case for the prespecificationof objectives if adequate procedures of evaluation are to be found, we mustpause to ask whether evaluation becomes quite impossible if we are not preparedto start with a statement of objectives and, if it does not, what differencesdoes this necessitate in our methods of evaluation?Developed approaches to curriculum evaluationFirst, we might perhaps note a weakness in the simple objectives model approach.For, a proper evaluation requires a proper level of understanding of the processthat is being evaluated (Stenhouse, 1975). A simple assessment of the attainmentof objectives is concerned only with the success or failure of the programme; it isnot concerned essentially with an understanding of it. It assesses without explain-139