Evaluate to improve learning: Reflecting on the role of teaching and learning models

Focusing attention on models of teaching and learning during design and development phases can become the key to integrating evaluation in a teaching development project. This article reflects on an experience in planning and conducting an evaluation of a prototype ofa new technology-basedteaching initiative. The learning experiences designed as part of the prototype were explicitly built on a model of teaching and learning. This had implications for evaluation not recognised in many evaluation manuals. Aligning evaluation to a model of teaching and learning is revealed to be complex in the sense that an initial model needs to be interpreted and extended to include reference to underlying epistemological assumptions. Yet aligning evaluation with an extended model of teaching and learning simplifies and assists the process of evaluation including the choice of methods, analysis of the data and determining improvements. It directly links evaluation to design and development.