Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Kirkpatrick's 4 Levels of Training Evaluation

Donald L Kirkpatrick, Professor Emeritus, University Of Wisconsin (where he achieved his BBA, MBA and PhD), first published his ideas in 1959, in a series of articles in the Journal of American Society of Training Directors. The articles were subsequently included in Kirkpatrick's book Evaluating Training Programs (originally published in 1994; now in its 3rd edition - Berrett-Koehler Publishers).

Donald Kirkpatrick's 1994 book Evaluating Training Programs defined his originally published ideas of 1959, thereby further increasing awareness of them, so that his theory has now become arguably the most widely used and popular model for the evaluation of training and learning. Kirkpatrick's four-level model is now considered an industry standard across the HR and training communities.

The four levels of Kirkpatrick's evaluation model essentially measure:

  • REACTIONS-What they thought and felt about the training
  • LEARNING-The resulting increase in knowledge or capability
  • TRANSFER-Extent of behaviour and capability improvement and implementation/application
  • RESULTS-The effects on the business or environment resulting from the trainee's performance

All these measures are recommended for full and meaningful evaluation of learning in organizations, although their application broadly increases in complexity, and usually cost, through the levels from level 1-4.

Figure 5 Kirkpatrick's 4 Levels of Training Evaluation