Theoretical Foundations in Models of Educational Evaluation

Making decisions are essential in educational evaluation. A kind of knowledge which guides the evaluator is called "Foundations". What are foundations of educational evaluation? The present study is an effoti to introduce basic foundations such as, ethical, epistemological and political ones considering on description of main activities in educational evaluation. Ethical foundations are pointing to the "value" in evaluation process with regarding to subjectivism and objectivism; also two main schools of ethical subjectivism such as, utilitarianism and intuitionism, naturalism, and pluralism which are followed by the comparison of them. Two main directions, "the emphasis on the role of government and the public" and their basis have been considered. By the way, setting or situations of these models and their relationship with different aspects of ethical, political and epistemological foundations have been portraied.