Division of Research, Evaluation, and Communication：研究，评估师，和沟通.doc

Division of Research, Evaluation, and Communication: Evaluation Workshop – September 29, 2003 Connie Kubo Della-Piana The Division of Research, Evaluation, and Communication held the second of three workshops designed to develop a picture of the current state and future of educational research, evaluation, and communication in STEM education and the current and potential role of REC in those pursuits. Expert practitioners and recognized scholars in the field of program evaluation were invited to reflect on the current state of evaluation and to speculate about the future. Four sets of questions guided the day-long discussion. The first question focused on trends and future directions. The second question asked the panelists to describe areas in which creative work was being done currently and to speculate where opportunities for creative work have been missed. Next, panelists discussed the three or four areas in evaluation in which substantial progress had not been made and three or four areas in which there had been a reasonable accumulation of knowledge. Lastly, panelists were asked to submit written responses discussing opportunities and the major obstacles and threats to the progress and accumulation of knowledge in evaluation, particularly in STEM education, and how these opportunities and impediments could be addressed. The discussion ended with a set of recommendations for REC on next steps. This report provides a brief summary of the written responses of the expert panel and discussions of the issues raised in the papers without specific reference to STEM education. The summary is broken down into three topics: Contributions, shortfalls and challenges, and new foci and opportunities. The first section provides an overview of the summary. The next sections present extended descriptions and discussions of the topics. Overview Contributions. The field of evaluation has made major contributions to applied social and behavioral science research in fo