Abstract:

The paper presents the outcomes of the studies on evaluation of adult education staff. The research was conducted in the international project EduEval - Evaluation for the Professional Development of Adult Education Staff - by Janusz Korczak Pedagogical University in Warsaw, and financed by the European Commission. The first part of the paper shows the rules of the adult education system in Poland, among others: school and out-of-school settings; admission requirements; modes of delivery; assessment; qualifications and certificates; quality assurance and funding. The second part is based on data collection during interviews with official and unofficial evaluators and depictures the evaluation of adult education settings and its staff. The analysis focuses on the definition of evaluation, its aims, tools, standards and results. Significant attention is paid to the topics of: external evaluation, self-assessment and context evaluation. External evaluation is routinely performed by someone who is not directly involved in the operation of the system being evaluated. Self-assessment, as an evaluation methodology, aims at the definition of strong points to be enhanced within an organization by self-assessing the work of all actors. Context evaluation is understood from the perspective of its ever so complex nature, embracing the processes, the environment, the activities and intangible factors of feelings and cultures. Three evaluation forms of external evaluation, self-assessment and context evaluation come into a mutual or reciprocal relationship, and they cannot be considered in a hierarchical order or separately. Particular emphasis is focused on the evaluator profile in terms of knowledge, key skills and competences. The paper also shows difficulties faced during the evaluation.

Keywords:

Adult education in Poland, staff evaluation, evaluator profile.