Summative Evaluation. Teacher's Domain: Physical Science. A Web Site Containing a Digital Library/Repository of Contextualized Teaching and Learning Resources

Abstract

This abstract is an excerpt from the Executive Summary of the Report: "The general goals for this summative evaluation study are twofold. One goal is to inform our understanding about the impact that use of project support materials (e.g., lesson plans) has on teaching. Consequently, research efforts were made to assess teachersâ use of the site and changes in their instructional strategies, if any, as the result of having the project support materials available for lesson planning and instruction. A second goal is to determine the impact of the Teachersâ Domain: Physical Science features and resource material on student learning of science as described in the National Science Education Standards in the areas of physical science content and process. Toward these ends, both descriptive and explanatory findings are reported. The researcher looked for patterns in the quantitative and qualitative data to explain the effective and ineffective aspects of the Web site. Credibility of findings were established through triangulation of methods. Communication between the evaluator and project staff took place at the outset of research in order to review developments and agree upon specific evaluation issues." The comprehensive evaluation is 111 (88 numbered) pages long and besides a summary of results also contains respondents actual comments.