DESCRIPTIVE EVALUATIONS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND OF DEVELOPMENTAL SETTINGS

Abstract

This paper has described and supported with research data what is essentially a philosophy of evaluation—one which suggests that the most important function of developmental evaluation is descriptive rather than diagnostic and as compressing a history rather than predicting a future. Behavioral evaluations are necessary to accomplish these other objectives; but, until assessment techniques are far more elegant than they are today, they should not be expected to accomplish them alone. Further, it has been suggested that naturalistic descriptions are as valuable and as necessary as structured ones. Finally, a plea has been made that more research attention be directed to the task of evaluating environments. A crude attempt to do this on our own part has carried some important empirical fuel to the theoretical fire which describes development as influenced by the milieu in which that development occurs.