ERIC Number: EJ1401350
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1045-1595
EISSN: EISSN-2162-4070
Using Aristotle's Four Causes to Evaluate and Revise Adult Education Programs
Taylor, Jonathan E.; Sondermeyer, Elizabeth
Adult Learning, v34 n4 p244-255 2023
Over 2000 years ago, Aristotle wrote of four distinct causes at play in the world we know. Those causes, the material cause, the formal cause, the efficient cause, and the final cause, were meant to refer to ontological and, by extension, epistemological concerns, and were powerful enough to be seized upon and used in some form by those of very different philosophical persuasions (i.e., rational humanists and neo-Thomists). These four types of causes are introduced here as an analytical tool to conduct both formative and summative curriculum assessments, and as a tool to analyze and develop curriculum. The fourth cause, particularly, adds analytical power to present program review conceptions because it positions the result of the program as a cause, rather than a mere output.
Descriptors: Philosophy, Causal Models, Evaluation Methods, Program Evaluation, Adult Education, Formative Evaluation, Summative Evaluation, Curriculum Evaluation, Curriculum Development
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A