An Interpersonal Skills Learning Taxonomy for Program Evaluation ...

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N. V. Christieapproach) makes the evaluator-in-training aware of what interpersonal skills are,their uses, and the consequences of using them for the field of program evaluation.At this level, lecturing is the most basic form of direct delivery; storytelling andbrainstorming are other examples. Here students should be able to clearly defineand recognize the interpersonal skills most used by evaluators. Such tasks correspondto the remember cognitive process domain and the factual knowledge processdomain of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. As such, the most basic form of assessmentwould be a quiz testing a student’s ability to recall and define the interpersonalskills most used by program evaluators.Table 1.Integrated Interpersonal Skills TaxonomySkill Stage(Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986)Bloom’sTaxonomy(L. W. Anderson &Krathwohl, 2001)ShapingSequence(Glaser, 1983)LearningActivityAssessmentNovice, first levelRememberDirectinstructionLectureQuizNovice, second level Understand Written practiceWritingpromptWritingpromptAdvanced Beginner Apply Self-monitoringCasestudyCase studyanalysisCompetency, first level Analyze/Evaluate ModelingExpertrole playCritiqueCompetency, second level Analyze/Evaluate RehearsalProficiency Creating In vivoExpertise Creating In vivoStudentrole palyReal orsimulatedfieldworkReal orsimulatedfieldworkCritiquePortfolioPortfolioNote. Realistically, instructors may achieve up to the competency skill stage in any given single-semesterprogram evaluation course. However, the other higher stages of proficiency and expertise may not beattainable within a semester but may be better served in a program evaluation degree or certificate program.In another dimension of the novice skill stage, students should be able toillustrate situations where they could use their interpersonal skills in program750 Journal of Public Affairs Education
Interpersonal Skills Taxonomyevaluation practice. Such behaviors correspond to the understand level ofBloom’s Taxonomy, where students are asked to explain how they expect to usethese skills in program evaluation practice. As a learning activity, instructorsmight give students a writing prompt outlining a short example of a specificskill or set of skills and ask students to respond by explaining how they woulduse their interpersonal skills in each situation. Instructors might create acomprehensive prompt to address all interpersonal skills or a prompt for eachskill, all of which correspond to Glaser’s written practice sequence, for whichthe writing prompt serves as an assessment.The advanced beginner skills stage may require a two-part sequence to achieveself-monitoring. The first part requires a situational analysis, in which the instructorassigns case studies (or similar activity) where students have to decide which interpersonalskills will be most relevant in a given situation by analyzing the contextof the situation (such as organizational or political aspects). The second aspect wouldgo beyond the context-specific consideration to recognizing how students wouldapply these skill in given situations in program evaluation practice. By requiringan in-depth analysis of the case study, instructors are able to assess students’ applicationof each interpersonal skill within Stevahn et al.’s (2005b) competency framework.The competence skills stage allows students to determine the context in whichthe situation occurs and take an inventory of the skills available to assist them inresolving the situation. Brown (1985) describes the competency stage as one wherethe learner “integrates past learnings, current misgivings, and new experiencesemotionally and cognitively” (p. 163). Upon reaching this stage, learners are ableto appreciate the complexity involved in completing a program evaluation.At the competence skills stage, students should be able to analyze and evaluatethe appropriate uses for interpersonal skills in program evaluation practice. Thisanalysis and evaluation can take place using role-playing learning activities.One type of role play is expert-centered role play, where the instructor invitesexperts in the field to class to demonstrate the proper use of these interpersonalskills in practice. The instructor then asks students to evaluate the expert’s usageof the skill performed. On the other side, instructors can use the rehearsal shapingsequence to conduct a student-centered role-playing activity in which students actout a scenario where they can demonstrate the appropriate uses of interpersonalskills in evaluation practice.The last two skills stages, proficiency and expertise, may be unattainable in asingle-course program evaluation setting but may be more useful if implementedin a program evaluation degree or certificate program. At this stage, studentsshould be able to demonstrate the usage of these skills in real-life evaluationsettings. Students should have the opportunity to engage in hands-on learning ofthe program evaluation practice and generate hypotheses about observed behaviorswhile engaging others using appropriate interpersonal behaviors. Lee et al. (2007)argued that the best way for students to acquire hands-on learning is to engage inJournal of Public Affairs Education 751
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