Evaluation models are used in curriculum as a process for assessing the appropriateness of a curriculum for a context. As with approaches to curriculum evaluation, evaluation models can be divided into scientific and humanistic models. For the next few post, we will look at scientific models of curriculum evaluation. Our first example is Robert Stake’s Congruence-Contingency Model.
Congruence-Contingency Model
Stake’s model of curriculum evaluation is more than just an evaluation process. Stake’s model also looks at the development of the curriculum. When using this model, it is necessary to compare the developed curriculum with what actually 
There are six key terms, broken down into two groups of three, that we need to know in order to understand Stake’s model and they are as follows.
Development Stage
- Potential prerequisites
- Potential Curriculum
- Potential results
Evaluation Stage
- Prerequisites applied in context
- Evaluation of operational curriculum
- Actual results
Prerequisites
The prerequisites is another way of saying “before” or the state of the context before the intervention of teaching. This includes student’s attitude, motivation, prior academic performance, teacher characteristics, and more. In the development stage, the teachers need to identify what are some potential prerequisites that may impact learning. In the evaluation stage, the evaluators determine what prerequisites actually impact the curriculum. In other words, there is a comparison of what was anticipated and what actually was the case in terms of the prerequisites.
Potential & Operational Curriculum
Potential curriculum is the “dream” curriculum that is developed. It includes everything that the teachers want to do. The Operational curriculum is what was actually used. There is normally a discrepancy between the two as it is difficult to cover all of the material and use all of the activities. The evaluation will examine the difference between these two aspects of curriculum as another criterion for assessing the quality of the curriculum.
Potential vs. Actual Results
Potential results are what the teachers hope to see as a result of the use of the curriculum. Actual results are the real performance of the students. The difference between the potential or desired results and actual results is another indicator of the quality of the curriculum in Stake’s model.
Conclusion
Stake’s Model provides evaluators with an opportunity to compare the desired outcome with the actual outcome. The benefit of this is that it is the curriculum developers that set the criteria of evaluation. All the evaluators do is determine if the curriculum performed in a manner that is consistent with the ideas of the developers.
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hi…i have doubt here. for Stake’s Congruence- contingency model what are the data collection that are suitable. can questionnaire be used to collect the data?
Yes that is one option for collecting data in a quantitative manner
hello Dr.. what is the difference between stakes’ congruence-contingency model and Stake’s responsive evaluation model? my study is on evaluating implementation of school assessment in science curriculum… and i choose stakes’ congruence-contingency model. i’m thinking what is the best way to measure the intended as well as observation antecedent and transactions and i choose to collect data using questionnaire. is it appropriate? any suggestion Dr? Tq
One difference is in the philosophies of the two models. The congruence model comes from the scientific approach while the responsive model comes from a more humanistic approach. Scientific involves traditional research methods while humanistic relies on qualitative methods
thank you Dr…
Dr,
what is the differences between curriculum evaluation models and evaluation approaches?
thank you
approaches inspire models. Another word for approach is philosophy
Dr,
does stake’s countenance model or congruence-contingency model can be used for both formative and summative evaluation?
Any model can be used at anytime because it is your purpose that matters.
hello Dr,
What is difference between the description matrix and judgement matrix in stake’s countenance model? how to use both matrix ?
tq
hello Dr,
is Stake countenance Model and Stake congruence-contingency Model same?
Is Stakes countenance and responsive model the same and what are the advantages of same?