Eisner's+Educational+Connoisseurship+Model


 * Brief Overview**
 * Teaching in small bits does not allow students to see the larger picture.
 * distinction between education and learning.
 * If we want students to problem solve then we must value problem solving by making it prevalent in the curriculum and evaluate it.
 * The theory of educational connoisseurship is the "art of appreciation".
 * Construct meaning from experiences - Dewey philisophy.

Eisner’s connoisseurship model provides a strong framework and alternative to the experimental design evaluations. According to Eisner (1998), connoisseurship is “the art of appreciation” and educational connoisseurs are those who have a distinctive awareness of qualities in different settings. He thinks connoisseurs evaluate the issues by looking at their qualities and illuminate a situation so that it can be seen or appreciated by others as well. In the evaluation of educational technologies, the connoisseurship model has two major implications: holistic approach to the analysis and interpretation of data and multiple perspectives in the evaluative tasks. Holistic approach guides researchers from the formation of data collection instruments to the final write-up.

Which curriculum does the model evaluate: Planned, Enacted, and / or Experienced?
 * The key here is the experienced curriculum - what is it that we would like the students to learn.

How is data collected? What data is collected? This approach was used by the State of Connecticut to illustrate the quality of high school student responses to open-ended questions on the state’s Academic Performance Test (Connecticut State Department of Education 1995). The 1995 administration included an Interdisciplinary Assessment. It was designed to reveal students’ ability to “think critically, solve problems, make decisions and communicate their ideas to others. . . in a realistic and interdisciplinary context.”

Is there an organizer? yes Eisner points out five dimensions of schooling that educational connoisseurs consider: intentional, structural, curricular, pedagogical and evaluative. The “intentional level deals with goals or aims that are formulated for the school or a classroom”

Where does student assessment fit in? It is the focus.

What are the Pros and Cons to the Evaluation model?It assumes that the evaluators are experts - major con.