Research Evaluation

Within the broad field of education, Cohen, Manion and Morrison [15], Mac-donald [36] Mertens [40], Norris [41], Nunan [42], Smith and Glass [53], and Stenhouse [56] among others have explored the relationship between research and evaluation. Nunan [42] affirms that “any investigation which contains questions, data, and interpretations of the data qualifies as research”; in other words he stresses the view that evaluation is the application of research methods with the objective of validating a hypothesis or process. Gronlund [24] states that “evaluation may be defined as a systematic process of determining the extent to which instructional objectives are achieved”. Rossi et al [48] argue that evaluation can be defined as “a systematic, rigorous, and meticulous application of scientific methods to assess the design, implementation, improvement, or outcomes of a program”. Evaluation is a systemic documentation and determination of a subject’s value, worth, significance, and performance according to a pre-defined set of standards. Evaluation processes are often used in a wide range of fields in everyday and aca-demic life, including educational settings. Two factors are important in research evaluation design:

• To omit casual and uncontrolled observation • To properly define research objectives