Evaluation

The evaluation process in Pollen was mostly quantitative: measure the project’s educative value, its impact on children and teachers’ attitudes towards science. Qualitative evaluation focused on its social impact and its outreach dimension, the level of community participation. It was done in a limited number of cities to have more indepth qualitative results and to create a replicable framework. Questionnaires were specially designed in this order.

To go deeper on evaluation of Inquiry Based Science Education, see also:

1- The Report of the Working Group on International Collaboration in the Evaluation of Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) programs.
The International Working Group of the InterAcademies Panel (IAP) on International Issues is working on a proposal for collaboration with the evaluation of the implementation of Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) programs for presecondary school students in different countries. The group aims at helping the countries in the evaluation of the impact of such programs on students and on teachers.

2- “Assessing for learning” Workshops from the Exploratorium Institute of inquiry.
This is a set of five workshops also available on line and devoted to illustrate the role of formative assessment in inquiry learning, based on Wynne Harlen experience.

In 2009, the evaluation process reached an end and three final evaluation reports have been produced.

 

• The report entitled "Changes in pupils' attitudes towards science during two years within the Pollen project" presents the methods followed about the evaluation of pupils' attitudes and the results for seven countries : Germany, France, Hungary, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and UK.

 

• The research on teachers’ changing practice focused on 10 countries : Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, France, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden. The evaluation report deals with teachers’confidence and attitudes to science education and other different aspects. It presents the main findings and makes recommendations. You will find below the full report as well as a summary.

 

• The evaluation of the community participation in science education resulted in a report on the school-community collaboration. The principal findings and the recommendations can be found in the report below.

 

These evaluations show that the Pollen objectives have been positively achieved.