The evolution of educational evaluation has been significantly influenced by the assumptions and procedures of educational research which, in turn, aspires to make educational practice scientific. The concept of education connoisseurship and education criticism is posited upon a different set of techniques. Connoisseurship is an appreciative art based on an awareness of the qualities of what one encounters and a comprehension of other states against which to contrast it. Criticism is the linguistic disclosure of the encounter. Connoisseurship and criticism, already within the realm of the teacher, should be fostered because connoisseurship is capable of refinement, provides a level of consciousness that makes intellectual clarity possible, reveals new subject matter for both theoretical and empirical research, and requires an artful use of language that must come through an appreciative consiousness as well as an understanding of educational practice. Trust in educational criticism can be generated by comparing the criticism with the phenomena being described or with what one has experienced. The acceptance of this mode of evaluation to supplement traditional education research requires the application of the concept to the classroom. (JH)