Donald Kirkpatrick

Donald Kirkpatrick is Professor Emeritus of the University of Wisconsin in North America and a past president of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). He is best known for creating a highly influential model for training program evaluation, consisting of four levels of training evaluation (see also Course evaluation). Kirkpatrick's ideas were first published in 1959, in a series of articles in the US Training and Development Journal but are better known from a book he published in 1975 entitled, "Evaluating Training Programs".

Contents

Four Levels of Learning Evaluation

Kirkpatrick's four levels are designed as a sequence of ways to evaluate training programs. As you proceed through each of the levels, the evaluation becomes more difficult and requires more time and each level provides more information. Kirkpatrick notes in his book Evaluating Training Programs, Third Edition) that "none of the levels should by bypassed simply to get to level that the trainer considers the most important." [1]

The four levels of Kirkpatrick's evaluation model essentially measure:

  1. Reaction - what they thought and felt about the training (satisfaction; "smile sheets")
  2. Learning - the resulting increase in knowledge and/or skills, and change in attitudes
  3. Behavior - transfer of knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes from classroom to the job (change in job behavior due to training program)
  4. Results - the final results that occurred because of attendance and participation in a training program (can be monetary, performance-based, etc.)

Several authors have suggested an addition of a fifth level of evaluation. JJ Phillips has argued for the addition of a "Return on Investment (ROI) level which is essentially about comparing the fourth level of the standard model to the overall costs of training.[2] Roger Kaufman has argued that ROI is essentially a level-four type of evaluation since it is still internal to the organization and that a fifth level of evaluation should focus on the impact of the organization on external clients and society.[3]

Distinguishing Between Levels Two and Three

At times, there is confusion about the measurement of learning (level 2) versus behavior (level 3). Often the assumption is that trainees did not learn anything because they are not behaving any differently thatn they did before training occured. The traning program evaluators might consider the environment (or other factors affecting the transfer or application of learning) at the trainee's workplace to determine if that could be a case for non-transfer of learning.

References

  1. ^ Kirkpatrick, D. L. and Kirkpatrick J.D. (2006). Evaluating Training Programs (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  2. ^ Phillips, J. (1996). How much is the training worth? Training and Development, 50(4),20-24.
  3. ^ Watkins, R., Leigh, D., Foshay, R. and Kaufman, R. (1998). Kirkpatrick Plus: Evaluation and Continuous Improvement with a Community Focus. Educational Technology Research & Development, 46(4): 90-96.

    Kaufman, R. (1996). Strategic Thinking: A Guide to Identifying and Solving Problems. Arlington, VA. & Washington, D.C. Jointly published by the American Society for Training & Development and the International Society for Performance Improvement

    Kaufman, R. (2000). Mega Planning: Practical Tools for Organizational Success. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Publications. (Also Planificación Mega: Herramientas practicas paral el exito organizacional. (2004). Traducción de Sonia Agut. Universitat Jaume I, Castelló de la Plana, Espana.)

External links