An instrument for evaluating vocational education in Israel

The purpose of this study was to construct an instrument which would enable administrators and teachers to evaluate selected parts of vocational education programs in post-primary schools in Israel. The study also involved ascertaining the extent to which administrators perceived the proposed instrument as differentiating between effective and ineffective vocational education programs.The evaluation instrument was constructed by using several checklists employed at the time of the study by accrediting agencies in the United States for evaluating vocational education. In order to ascertain how administrators in Israel perceived the proposed instrument, a questionnaire based on the proposed instrument was prepared and administered.The total population was defined as administrators in post-primary vocational schools in Israel employed during the school year 1981-82.From among the administrators who responded, a sample of sixty administrators was randomly selected. This sample included twenty supervisors, twenty principals and twenty heads of vocational departments.Major findings of the study were as follows:1. Seventeen out of the twenty-three statements in parts I to V of the questionnaire were identified by more than 70 percent of the respondents as differentiating between effective and ineffective vocational education programs.Review of the data led to the following conclusions:1. At least those items that have been identified as differentiating by over seventy percent of the respondents may be included in an evaluation instrument for use in Israel.2. The statements that were identified as differentiating by no fewer than eighty percent of the respondents seem to show the most important indicators of effective vocational education programs.3. Humanities are not perceived by many administrators in vocational education as an integral part of a comprehensive vocational education program.Depending on the ranking of the statements and on comments and suggestions by respondents a modified instrument has been prepared.Thesis (D. Ed.