Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Training Evaluation Model
Analyzing Learning Effectiveness
Any time you deliver training to your team,
you need to know how effective it's been. Are your people putting their
learning into practice? And, is it positively impacting their role and the
wider organization?Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Training Evaluation Model can help
you to answer questions like these. You can use it to objectively analyze the
impact of training, to work out how well your team members learned, and to improve
their learning in the future.The
Kirkpatrick Model is a globally recognized method of evaluating the results of
training and learning programs. It assesses both formal and informal training
methods and rates them against four levels of criteria, It covers four
distinct levels of evaluation:
Ø Level 1: Reaction
Ø Level 2: Learning
Ø Level 3: Behavior
Ø Level 4: Results
As you move from levels 1 through 4, the
evaluation techniques become increasingly complex and the data generated
becomes increasingly valuable.Due to this increasing complexity as you get to
levels 3 and 4 in the Kirkpatrick model, many training professionals and
departments confine their evaluation efforts to levels 1 and 2. This leaves the
most valuable data off of the table, which can derail many well intended
evaluation efforts.Finally, if you are a training professional, you may want to
memorize each level of the model and what it entails; many practitioners will
refer to evaluation activities by their level in the Kirkpatrick model.Modern trainers
often use the Kirkpatrick model backward, by first stating the results that
they want to see, and then developing the training that is most likely to
deliver them. This helps to prioritize the goals of the training and make it
more effective.
