AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH IN THE EVALUATION OF SERVICE QUALITY IN A PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING PROGRAM

Abstract

"Quality is a term that is commonly considered to indicate a high level of customer satisfaction relative to factors that characterize a specific service. The most effective way to measure quality is to determine whether or not customers are satisfied. In the educational area, the constant search for improvements in the quality of educational services has led the scientific community to implement specialized measurement approaches in order to meet the quality expectations of trainees. The current research combines the evaluation model CIPP with the EppaikQual scale to measure the quality of the educational services of a Greek pedagogical training program. In this way, a management-oriented evaluation model is combined with a satisfaction measurement scale for the purpose of evaluating the program’s quality from the trainees’ perspectives. The research questions seek to determine the degree of trainee satisfaction based on the four levels of the evaluation and to define the level of the program’s quality. A total of 489 trainee prospective teachers for the 2019?2020 academic period participated in the survey. The method of sampling without probabilities was adopted. After the completion of the program, participants were electronically provided with the measurement scale. The reliability and validity of the research tool were tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Data were analyzed by calculating the mean scores and the percentage frequencies of their agreement?disagreement in each index of the four levels of the evaluation. The survey results show that trainees are in general satisfied with the provided educational services. Their degree of satisfaction is higher for the learning outcomes and lower for the program inputs. In conclusion, it can be inferred that the participants in the training program appear to be satisfied, but they propose specific areas in which structural interventions are required in order to upgrade the level of quality of the educational services. The information gathered can contribute to sound administrative decisions with a view to improving and sustaining the training program."