An Evaluation of Translation Quality Assessment Course: Voices from Instructors

Evaluation in educational setting is a process of collecting and analyzing information about teaching and learning in order to make decisions that enhance student achievement and the success of programs (Genesee 2002; Genesee and Upshur 1996; ReaDickins & Germaine 1993). Program evaluation is essential to successful education, but to date, such evaluative studies are notably lacking in our country. Although evaluation approaches recognize instructors as reflective and self-motivated professionals for curriculum planning, development and evaluation, their knowledge and experience have not been duly voiced in such areas. Thus, this paper aimed to evaluate the official curriculum of Translation Studies at M.A. level from the perspective of the instructors in charge of implementing it. Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) which is one of the key courses of Translation Studies at M.A. level was selected as the subject of this research owing to its critical significance in the program. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six expert/instructors (PhD) who taught this course at 3 universities of Iran in 2010-2011. The qualitative and detailed content analysis of the interviews showed that there is a broad consensus that the current curriculum suffers from many weaknesses in need of revision. Almost all instructors emphasized that students' needs should be taken into account in the process of curriculum development and that the curriculum should be modified profoundly in order to address issues, concepts, and concerns intimately related to TQA rather than language assessment. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.