KASA. You’ve heard the term many times. Have you really stopped to think about what it means? What evaluation approach you will use if you want to determine a difference in KASA? What analyses you will use? How you will report the findings?

Probably not. You just know that you need to measure KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, SKILLS, and ASPIRATIONS.

The Encyclopedia of Evaluation (edited by Sandra Mathison) says that they influence the adoption of selected practices and technologies (i.e., programs). Claude Bennett uses KASA in his TOP model  .I’m sure there are other sources.

A site I found when I searched KASA says that knowledge is the factual information; that attitudes are the beliefs and values; that skills are the capacities we hope the target audience will acquire; and aspirations are the motivators to act. This particular site also lists “behaviors” (different from skills) as the consistent application of knowledge and skills. Bennett separates out behavior as “practices”. Practices (i.e. behavior) are the medium/intermediate term outcomes where KASA is the short term outcomes (i.e. knowledge).

KASA/B is a good place to measure self efficacy (i.e. confidence) that the individual knows enough, has the skills (or behaviors), or aspires to do the desired activity. I say this because you can not unlearn something once you have learned it. So to measure factual knowledge like “The recommended daily nutriment requirement of vitamin C is (check the best number)?”, you need to use (for example) a pre-post test. To measure confidence, one could ask (for example), “I have the confidence that I will get my daily recommended dose of vitamin C if I eat which of the following foods daily?” and you could use a post-then-pre measure because you are not trying to unlearn a fact.

If the professional development workshop is short, there may not be enough time for the information to be acquired and the bias of a recency/immediacy effect will take place and the participants will answer the posttest like they answered the pretest and NO DIFFERENCE will be found. In such situations, you will need to use a measure of confidence. You can also use a measure of intention to change (stated intention to perform the desired behavior).

Although last week, I talked about evaluation in four steps (thank you Nancy Franz), there are nuances that need to be considered when an evaluation is conducted. These are embedded in the four steps. KASA, self-efficacy, and intention to change are some of those nuances. Sometimes less is more.

Reporting the findings will be covered soon.

my .

molly.