Monday, March 20, 2006

Retrospective pre-evaluation and constructive failure

I was at a workshop last week and learned two new phrases that need to be used more often:

1. Constructive failure means that even if a project fails to meet its expected outcomes, it can still provide valid information. I like that good can come from miserable failure.

2. Retrospective pre-evaluation means (I think) going back after an activity and asking someone to evaluate some aspect of their knowledge of the activity before they knew anything about it. Like asking someone who has taken a test to evaluate their knowledge of the test materials before they sat through the class.