Abstract:

The EduEval project is a project of the Lifelong learning programme of the European Commission (http://www.edueval.eu). The main scope of the project is to define the professional profile of the adult education staff evaluator and produce training materials and a course to increase the skills of the evaluators. The EduEval project focus directly on the staff making possible their professional development through evaluation.

During the first phase of the project, it was aimed to explore and understand how non-official evaluators performed the processes for quality increase in their own educational institutions. While official evaluators usually have a strict legal procedure to follow for evaluation, accreditation or validation, in adult education institutions (after university level), and mostly in non-official institutions, there is not such a legal procedure for evaluation and quality increase.

We acknowledge that role of evaluator is done by supervisors, managers, head of departments, experienced teachers, etc. We call it the non-formal level of evaluation and it can be carried out in non-official or official educational institutions, public or private, or any kind or aims: chambers of commerce, adult education organizations, NGO, local governments, social services houses, etc. The fact is that this non-formal level of evaluation lacks any of the usual components and procedures for evaluation, as the indicators, but it does not mean that they are not required.

The definition of indicators makes the evaluation process more systematic and verifiable, but on the other side, it adds formality to a soft process that usually is performed by non-official evaluators and also includes personal dynamics and relations (as the EduEval is focused on staff professional development). The innovation of EduEval project relies on the correct balance when defining the indicators, and also the way that those can be applied.

We propose dimension of indicators focused on assessment but also professional development of staff. The dimensions we propose are in the area of personal, group and external relations, as: training, personal grow, personal/group/head support, cooperation and environment. From a methodological perspective, we follow the EduEval model (self-assessment, external, and context evaluation) focused for community development, professional development and personal development

Keywords:

Evaluation, staff, education, professional development.