Abstract

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Abstract:: Questions are raised concerning the adequacy of public education in preparing youth for the complex demands of the emerging world. As proposed, the traditional structure of education—approximating industrial production—is ill suited for these needs. Pivotal in sustaining the production model is a reliance on assessment practices, typically in the form of tests and grades of student performance. Thus required, is a more promising alternative to this production model, and a relevant replacement for traditional assessment practices. In response to these challenges, we offer a relation-based view of the educational process, and a conception of evaluation in which relational process is central. Attention is then directed to a range of relevant evaluation practices-typically relying on dialogue, appreciation, and the inclusion of multiple-standpoints. Such practices are not only used in evaluating students, but teachers, and whole schools. In adopting practices of relational evaluation, we also invite an increased reliance on relationally sensitive practices in pedagogy and curricula. Relational evaluation thus serves as a key to educational transformation. Such transformation favors the development of expanding communities of learning, and the valuing of relational well-being over self-interest.