Analysis of curriculum evaluation studies conducted in foreign language education: 2005-2016

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze curriculum evaluation studies conducted in foreign language education between the years 2005 and 2016 in terms of the levels the studies were conducted in, sample groups, sample size, research methods and curriculum evaluation models via descriptive content analysis. Searching various data bases, 87 studies, which are comprised of 32 articles, 39 master’s theses and 16 Ph.D. dissertations and were conducted between the years mentioned, were accessed. The studies which were accessed were analyzed through descriptive content analysis by utilizing ‘Paper Classification Form’ developed by Sözbilir and Kutu (2008). The data were analyzed through SPSS 22.0 program and presented using descriptive statistical methods. Having analyzed the research findings, it was found that studies were mostly published as master’s theses or articles. Besides, most of the studies focused on the evaluation of elementary school programs, language course programs and preparatory school programs. However, post-graduate degrees, secondary school programs and distance foreign language teaching programs were evaluated in very few studies. Also, sample size between 31-100 was preferred the most frequently and sample size between 1-10 and 1000 and above were preferred the least frequently.  The findings also indicated that most studies were done as mixed research. Besides, in quantitative research, questionnaire was mostly preferred and in mixed research, questionnaire and interview were widely preferred. For data analysis descriptive statistics were used more than the inferential statistics and among descriptive statistics, descriptive analysis (f, %) was widely used. Furthermore, it was determined that more than half of the studies did not utilize a curriculum evaluation model.