Evaluation of nursing education programmes—Theory and practice

The history of educational evaluation is considered through a review of the literature, in order to try and understand how current evaluation methods have developed.

Abstract

In this paper, the history of educational evaluation is considered through a review of the literature, in order to try and understand how current evaluation methods have developed. It is important that a historical perspective is gained, as there has been a big shift in thinking from a strongly behaviourist code of practice to a more investigative and less prescriptive approach, during the relatively short time span that evaluation has had to develop as a subject in its own right. The application of the theory to practice is also considered in terms of a working evaluation model developed through work on continuing education courses in Scotland.