The Kirkpatrick Model has evolved over multiple decades through application by learning and development professionals around the world.
In 1954, Dr. Donald Kirkpatrick wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on evaluation of training for industrial supervisors. Like most training and development professionals, he had a genuine desire to know if his training was making a difference for the supervisors he trained, their direct reports, and the organizations in which they worked. He applied four steps he learned from Dr. Raymond Katzell, a prominent psychology researcher at the time. He refers to Katzell’s four steps in a 1956 article on training evaluation.
In 1959, Don was contacted by the organization now known as the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and asked to write an article about the training evaluation work he did for his dissertation. He wrote four articles, entitled Reaction, Learning, Behavior and Results.
Over the next decade unbeknownst to Don, the articles circulated, and training professionals around the world used and adapted his ideas. Someone whose identity is unknown called the words levels, and someone dubbed it The Kirkpatrick Model. Don became aware of these things sometime in the 1970s. Since then, the Kirkpatrick Model has become the industry standard for training evaluation.
In the 1990s, Don was asked to write a book to expand on the original four articles. He went on to write two additional books on the topic.
In 2008, Dr. Jim Kirkpatrick and Wendy Kirkpatrick created the Kirkpatrick Business Partnership Model, an expansion of the original four levels, as discussed in their book Training on Trial. They created the Kirkpatrick Foundational Principles to explain the key beliefs underpinning Kirkpatrick evaluation.
In 2010, Jim and Wendy Kirkpatrick clarified the original intent of the Kirkpatrick four levels with the New World Kirkpatrick Model.
See the Kirkpatrick Model
See the New World Kirkpatrick Model
Read the Kirkpatrick Foundational Principles
Learn about Return on Expectations
Review the Glossary of Kirkpatrick Terms