Learning Through Evaluation: Bridging Change in Higher Education :Case studies from SOCRATES projects

This paper will report on the evaluation experience in two SOCRATES projects focused on change in Higher Education. The projects were international in scope involving 6 countries and 20 institutions within the last four years. The paper reflects on change in institutions specifically, especially those introduced by the use of ICT and it suggests the hypothesis that in such a phase of transition, new rules are not yet established and a state of institutional anomie can occur. What happens in educational institutions in which rules and practices are well established and validated, when a new event radically changes or challenges the traditional practices. Instead of the psycho-social notion of 'resistance to change', we think that the theory of Durkheim and followers which analyses human responses in times of social change may be of use to interpret situations in which change or the will to change creates conflicting systems of rules and phenomena of social disorganisation. The paper will argue for a crucial role for evaluation in negotiating such periods of change. In the transition from one state of stability to another where conditions of stability are not determined, it is necessary to build tools of reference (bridging tools) that help create a framework for action. The two projects’ [LEARN-NETT and RECER@SUP] experience helps to think of some of these tools that give better predictability. We argue that instead of trying to reduce complexity by searching for common solutions and thus searching for a stable framework that could force change, we prefer to suggest a framework that will help each partner to create an individual provisional stability for change. The design of evaluation processes and practices in this kind of environment will provide resources for ‘sense making’. In summary our argument is as follows. We are working and learning in what social theory calls conditions of chronic uncertainty. These conditions can produce periods of normlessness and destructive instability. Learning changes in HE, often prompted by new ways of learning linked to the introduction of ICTs, can produce such instabilities as a transition is made across a boundary from one culture of practice to another and, for learners, from HE into new work practices. Learners and teachers in HE can be supported by constructing provisional stabilities as they seek creative solutions to problems created by change. These provisional stabilities are produced by reflecting, learning and understanding of change through evaluative processes, enabling choices or decisions for future action. The paper will outline our experience which suggests that formative evaluations can provide the resources for such reflections and act as a bridging tool for planning and innovation. Toward a theory of evaluation as a bridging tool As we suggest in the abstract, the evaluation approach we advocate could be understood as an 'evaluation for knowledge'. We argue that it is necessary during projects to give meaning to the process as a support for the actors to share their questions and observations. This enables a common frame of reference which might guide action in each experimental location while respecting the diversity of each of the participants’ contexts for action. The ultimate is to help build common knowledge that could be shared by all the actors of the network. In order to develop an approach which addressed the issues of