Evaluation of Teacher Training Methods in Adult Education

Course Paper
For the writing assignment, you are to write a paper in which you respond to a set of questions that you identify that pertain to a topic in training evaluation. The topic could be methodological and be related to one or more of the course learning objectives, or it could be a review of training evaluation in a discipline like teacher training, professional development of medical professionals or personnel in organizations. It could also address training development issues like transfer of training. However, in that type of paper, there should be a component pertaining to training evaluation; for example, monitoring or evaluating transfer of training. However, the focus of your paper should not just be a training program that you are familiar with and how to improve it, albeit you can use that training program to illustrate the points you are making in your paper. The paper must appropriately refer to articles you selected, and materials used and discussions during the course.
You are encouraged to discuss with me the focus and research questions of your paper, however, I do review drafts of your paper. In deciding on your topic, you are encouraged to look over the course learning objectives and all topics to be covered in the course and pick one that interests you most. If you have trouble identifying your topics and questions, let me know by email and I will try to offer suggestions.
The paper should include the following 5 components:
1) A title (like “Training evaluation in medical education”, ”Use of self-reporting in training evaluation”). (Obviously, you can write a book on any topic you choose; you are only expected to write, on the basis of selected key articles and/or chapters, answers to some questions on the topic that you choose).
2) A background description that clearly presents the context for the questions you selected. When using terms that are unique to a specific field, define them.
In this section, you should provide the brief rationale for your topic and questions (why it is important to know the answers to your selected questions for the field of training evaluation). No more than 2 pages.
3) A set of questions ranging from 2 to 4 questions pertaining to the topic of your choice. The question format is flexible but they must be stated as stand-alone questions (so for a question like “what are the strategies for addressing these issues?” it is not complete because you have not referred to the issues.). Roughly 50% of your questions for your paper can be the orienting questions used to guide our weekly discussion. Regardless, if the question is an orienting question or one generated by you, your answers must be substantial extensions of the class discussion and my weekly comments (roughly 75% of your answer should be based on new materials and ideas not covered in the class discussion). The idea is that although your answers should refer to and build on the discussions in class (if appropriate), they should not be just summaries of the class discussion either. When referring to class discussion and you should, you don’t have to (but you can) cite the individual to whom you are referring.
4) A reference list of articles, chapters, or reports that you will rely on to generate your answers to the questions. You are expected to conduct a brief lit search to generate your own list (let me know if you need help with the library search). You can refer to Course Bibliography that is included in the Course Document Conference; however, you must rely primarily on the materials from your lit search and half of the references must be drawn from your search.
The reference list should be presented in American Psychological Association (APA) style (A Crib sheet is included in Resources). For example,
Mabe, P.A. III, & West, S.G. (1982). Validity of self-evaluation of ability: A review and meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67, 177-183.
The number of articles for each question is flexible and you should focus more on the comprehensiveness of treatment of the response to the question than number of articles. Having said that, to maintain a multiple perspective, if you have 4 questions (and you can use an article for multiple questions) there should be at least 3 articles per question. Apparently, the fewer the questions you have, the more articles you should include because the answers should be more elaborate than if you have fewer questions.
5) A self-assessment of the (1) strength and weakness of your questions and answers (all course papers and sometimes published papers have weaknesses); (2) what you might have done or do to improve your answers in the future if you have more time; (3) what research and development projects you or others may want to do in the future.
Although generally a graduate level course paper should be written succinctly in roughly 10 (give and take) double spaced word-processed pages (not counting self-assessment and references), since length of your answers is affected by the topic and questions you choose, length of your paper should not be as much of a concern to you as the quality and appropriateness of your answers. Please use double spacing, 1” margins and with Times New Roman 12 font. All pages must be paginated. The paper is due 4/5 for those who graduate in 2023 and 4/17 for all others. Late submission will be subject to the penalty of one grade level lowered (e.g., from B+ to B) for each day of delay. For submitting your paper, you send a Word file to me via email with the following title “[your name]-1046-assignment.”
I will use the following criteria implicitly to grade your paper:
• Comprehensiveness: the extent to which each answer covers all aspects of the issues pertaining to the question you have chosen, and make appropraite reference to articles you selected and class reading assignments and discussions.
• Depth of understanding: the extent to which each answer addresses your question, with explanations that are correct, and arguments that are insightful and grounded on appropriate content.
• Presentation: the extent to which the answers are presented coherently, clearly, succinctly and in a format that is easy to follow, and it aheres to the aforementioned guidelines for presenting your paper.
Here are the general descriptions of the three categories of grades:
• An Excellent paper meets all the requirements and is one in which the answers are comprehensive with good analysis and syntheses of all the relevant articles and class discussions (including my summaries and comments), as well as personal and professional experiences if appropriate. The answers are well thought-out and organized arguments that clearly address the questions, go much beyond what has been discussed in class, that clearly show not only a deep understanding of the materials but a well-formed position or opinion on the issues of interest. The varying degrees of quality and appropriate across answers will form the basis for assigning the A+, A, or A- grade.
• A Good paper meets all the requirements and is one in which the answers are based on the relevant articles to some extent, but it may or may not use the class discussions appropriately (by either not referring to them or regurgitating them) and/or personal or professional experiences (if appropriate), and hardly inject one’s opinion. The answers do not represent a very good synthesis of the supporting materials, although they may still reflect a somewhat good understanding and well formed perspective of the target issues. Finally, the presentation may not be very clear, nor succinct and well organized. The varying degrees of quality and appropriate across answers will form the basis for assigning the B+, B, or B- grade.
• An Inadequate paper is either a paper not submitted, or one in which the requirements are basically not met and the answers are not coherent and fail to add to the knowledge sought by the questions.