Abstract
Instructional development and evaluation are essentially concerned with the giving and taking of advice, and, for this reason, a great deal of what is accomplished depends upon the quality of the client-consultant relationship. Creating and nurturing such a relationship, which is essential to effectiveness, demands a special set of skills. Most developers and evaluators have usually developed these as a result of their long experience. Fortunately, these relationship skills can be more quickly acquired, for effectiveness involves learning the competencies that comes from getting the right things done in terms of client-consultant expectations.
This paper examines the special nature of the client-instructional developer, client-evaluator, relationship within the broader and more general context of a theory of advice. An analysis is made of the differing sets of assumptions and expectations that may underlie the relationship, for which three common models are recognized.
The discussion then continues with a description of seven successive phases through which a relationship can typically pass, a cycle which runs parallel to the cycle of task-oriented activities more usually recognized. Both cycles, relationship-oriented and task-oriented, need to be managed in such a way that the two on-going sets of activity are as compatible as possible. After considering a number of general factors that contribute overall to effective relationships, the paper concludes with the assertion that effectiveness seems to be a product of how the relationship is actually viewed.
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Ivor K. Davies, April 24th 1974. No part of this paper may be reproduced, stored or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
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Davies, I.K. Some aspects of a theory of advice: The management of an instructional developer-client, evaluator-client, relationship. Instr Sci 3, 351–373 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00051901
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00051901