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Evaluator Competencies Reflection

Reflecting on my past experiences as an evaluator and learning more about the competencies of the evaluator, I have realized I have a lot of experience with evaluation. I also have many areas where I would like to spend time researching and growing from those experiences so that I can become a more data-driven and culturally responsive evaluator in the future. I have also realized several strengths through my reflection that allow me to be a strong evaluator in certain areas. Recently, I have taken an evaluator self-assessment, and today I want to reflect on those findings.

Self-Assessment Results:

The evaluator self-assessment results were rated on a scale of 1–6, with 6 representing the expert evaluator. I would rate myself at a solid 5 with my evaluation techniques. I have a lot of experience with evaluation and have also been in several positions where I was evaluated on things. I understand how to analyze data from an unbounded perspective and follow specific guidelines. However, to be the most effective evaluator, it takes time, reflection, and continuous learning to be able to understand and adapt to situations.

Strengths: Oral, Written, and Visual Skills

After reviewing the self-assessment evaluation results, I have found that I have several strengths and weaknesses. One of my most notable strengths is my oral, written, and visual skills. I have had many roles where I have had to communicate with others on projects and tasks, and my experience as a teacher made it so I would have to communicate with parents, school administrators, and coworkers. I also have considerable experience evaluating schools and leading meetings with school owners, directors, and staff where I would have to communicate in person, via phone, and email, which I believe to have been a huge asset in making my oral, written, and visual skills as good as they are.

Weaknesses: 

One of my biggest weaknesses in my evaluation skills would be using data to revise the learning experiences I design. Although, on my self-assessment, I still gave myself a score of 5. Most of the time, when I have done evaluations in the past, I have used data that has been more of my own personal data and not data that directly relates to the instructional design process. I believe this deficiency of mine comes from not having a clear perspective on how to measure evaluation data. 

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise:

Astonishingly, the competency that surprised me the most was the cultural competency. Although I try to be as culturally responsive as I can, it is not something that has come easy to me to fully understand, and I always make sure that I am aware of it. However, upon further research and reflection, I have realized that that is so important in the evaluation process. If you are not able to have an understanding of cultural norms and values, I feel as though it could make you not understand a situation fully and can make you come across as a sensitive evaluator when, as an evaluator, your job is to help and provide feedback and understanding, and you can't do that if you aren't culturally responsive. 

Areas of Growth:

Furthermore, the results of the self-assessment have brought many areas of strength, weakness, and even surprise to my attention. First, I am going to conduct more research into the "AEA Evaluator Competencies" (AEA 2018). I believe that understanding these ways to conduct the evaluation process will make me a stronger evaluator in the future.

Additionally, I recognize that to be a stronger evaluator, having the opportunity to gain more experience doing more evaluations would be a huge benefit to my own professional development as an evaluator. I believe engaging in more real-world projects with my peers and more experienced evaluators would be very beneficial for my success as an evaluator, so that way I can learn and put the things I am working on into practice and ask questions to more experienced individuals when needed. 

Next, recognizing the impact of being a culturally responsive evaluator is so important in the evaluation process. I would like to engage with more diverse communities, perhaps through volunteer work. This would allow me to gain different cultural perspectives and understand the traditions and values of different diverse groups, which I believe would help me become more culturally responsive and sensitive. 

In conclusion, the opportunity for self-assessment allowed me to reflect and gain more insight into myself as an evaluator. I was able to reflect on my past experience as an evaluator and identify my strengths and weaknesses in the evaluation process. I have realized I have strong evaluation skills from my past experiences, which has allowed me to have great oral, written, and visual evaluation skills. Through the self-evaluation reflection, I was able to identify an area of growth with my evaluation data skills and was able to make a plan to help my deficiency in this area by doing further research on how to apply the "AEA evaluator competencies (AEA 2018). I was surprised to reflect on where I stand with cultural competencies and will take steps in the future to get to know and understand more diverse groups to make me a stronger evaluator in the future. I hope that with this new plan in place, I can reach those expert-level evaluation skills in no time! 

References

2018 AEA Evaluator Competencies (American Evaluation Association, Compiler). (2018) 

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