要了解課程評鑑的理論與實際，必須先了解課程評鑑的基本概念。本文之中，首先敘述評鑑概念的發展，除探討評鑑的歷史外，並分析影響評鑑發展的因素。其次，探討評鑑的意義，除了分析評鑑的新舊定義之外，也澄清「評分」、「評等」、「績效」、「測驗」、「研究」等概念和「評鑑」之差異。最後，探討評鑑在課程改革上的重要性，並剖析「教育評鑑」、「教學評鑑」和「課程評鑑」三個概念。

Curriculum planning is a matter of making choices, this does not imply that one choice is as good as another. Value judgments determine the appropriateness of each choice made, and curriculum evaluation is the proves used in judging the appropriateness of curriculum choices.
Like any analytic term, evaluation can be defined in many essentially arbitrary ways. Three particular definitions that have gained common acceptance have certain advantages and disadvantages：the measurement definition, the congruence definition and the judgment definition. Not until recently, the terms evaluation has been considered as proves for providing qualitative and╱or quantitative data useful to decision makers. This process can be applied to many different fields, such as school administrations, curriculum, etc.
In the field of curriculum, a useful distinction is made between formative and summative evaluation. Formative evaluation is undertaking to provide improve an existing program；summative evaluation is done to assess the effect of a completed program.
New and important development in the field of evaluation are described in the first part of this paper, the definition of evaluation in the second part, and the functions of curriculum evaluation in the third part. Some confusing concepts are discussed in the paper, too.
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