-
EVALUATION
Several events and developments sparked an increased interest in evaluation in the 1960s, when achievements in natural sciences create an almost unshakable faith in their methods, immediately adopted by social scientists to tackle society’s ills. With the application of scientific methods to program evaluations, traditional evaluation was born. -
EARLY EVALUATION
The 1960s A first wave of evaluation development starts in the 60s, when many countries, such as the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom, start feeling the need of monitoring the progress of programs, evaluate the effectiveness of the operations and assess the performance of government activity.
Were also a very successful period for the natural sciences, and this led to an almost unshakable faith in the natural sciences and their methods, which, by consequence, where adopted b -
KUHN BELIEVES
Scientific knowledge is not “discovered” but “constructed” in a social context. The knowledge “constructed” depended on the particular “paradigm” within which the research was situated.
To originate in the academic world, as a consequence to the increased attention to “constructed” knowledge and the serious implication that the constructivists’ argument that the cultural context of research is an important determinant of its outcomes has for program evaluation. -
WEBB ET AL
“Once a proposition has EVALUATION: DEFINITIONS, METHODS AND MODELS 30 been confirmed by two or more independent measurement processes, the uncertainty of its interpretation is greatly reduced”.
It can be employed in both quantitative (validation) and qualitative (inquiry) studies; it is a method-appropriate strategy of founding the credibility of qualitative analyses; and it is the preferred line in the social sciences because, by combining multiple observers, theories, methods, and empirical. -
PROGRAM EVALUATION IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
Onwards that evaluation has begun to take root in different European countries, with different traditions and emphasis. Program evaluation has not been seen in the same manner in the different countries for many reasons. In the States, for example, evaluation is a significant part of social science research and it has its origin in the massive initiative supported under the banner of the “War to Poverty” by the presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
it was not clear how to measure inputs and outp -
WORD POSITIVISM
Were characterized by a host of developments both in the political realm and in the academic realm.
18th century onwards positivism has provided the philosophical underpinning of mainstream science from the 18th century onwards. The word positivism in social science and philosophy means the application of scientific methods to social phenomena. This tradition believes that observation is the instrument to obtain objective knowledge. -
EVALUATOR ROLE
The evaluator is likely to assume a responsive, interactive and orchestrating role bringing together different groups of stakeholders with divergent views for mutual exploration and to generate consensus. -
LINCOLN AND GUBA
They brought the debate to the field of evaluation, launching what has often been referred to as the “paradigm wars” (Caracelli, 2000) and challenging the privileged status of the traditional evaluation over alternative approaches. -
GITLIN AND SMYTH ''DEFINITION OF EVALUATION'
From its Latin origin meaning 'to strengthen' or to empower, the term evaluation has taken a numerical turn - it is now largely about the measurement of things - and in the process it can easily slip into becoming an end rather than a means. -
SCRIVEN ''EVALUATION''
Evaluation is the process of determining the merit, worth and value of things and evaluations are the products of that process. Evaluation is not the mere accumulation and summarizing of data that are clearly relevant for decision making…gathering and analyzing the data that are needed for decision making comprise only one of the two key components in evaluation, a second element is required to get to conclusions about merit or net benefits: evaluative premises or standards. -
WEIMER & VINING(1992), THOMPSON (1980) AND ZECKHAUSER (1975)
If people would be willing to pay money to have something, presumably it is a benefit; if they would pay to avoid it, it is cost. In practice, however, assigning monetary values to inputs and outcomes in social programs is rarely so simple, and it is not always appropriate to do so. -
HOUSE ''QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE METHODS''
He stated that “the debate between qualitative and quantitative methods is the most enduring schism in the field of evaluation…but it will recede in importance and mixed method studies will become the norm in the future” Worthen in 2001 assert “the qualitative/quantitative debate is a ‘mutant’ and is still very much alive in our midst”. -
Joint Committee of Standards
Made a first attempt to verge on ethics for evaluators with a list of ethical guidelines including the call for frank and full disclosure and for balanced and objective reporting, with strong implication to the fact that evaluators should stick to the job of finding merit and worth of a program. -
AMERICAN EVALUATION SOCIETY
It has somehow tried to state some Guiding principles (www.eval.org) to solve the increasing debate on conflict and confluence of interests. the evaluator should inform a client if there is reason to believe he or she might be object to a particular value commitment”; moreover “Evaluators should explore with the client the shortcomings and strengths of the various evaluation questions''. -
AMERICAN SOCIETY EVALUATION ''EVALUATOR'S WORK''
“Evaluators should seek to determine, and where appropriate to be explicit about, their own, their clients’ and other stakeholders’ interests concerning the conduct and outcomes of an evaluation”. -
WOLCOTT(1999) ''EXAMPLES OF QUALITATIVE METHODS''
Qualitative research studies rely on three basic data gathering techniques: participant observation, interviews, and documents or artifact analysis.Some examples of qualitative methods: Analytic induction, focus group, ethnography, participnat observation, Semi-structured interviews, unstructured interviews, Textual analysis and Theoretical sampling. -
WOLCOTT ''EVALUATORS''
The evaluators are most of time called to work in natural settings, where history and context matter and experiences are shaped by relationships and institutions and where the complexity can be studied only with a marshalling of all the ways of understanding. -
HENRY, JULNES, AND MARK ''PRAGMATIC APPROACH''
These authors attempt to give the pragmatic approach more legitimacy by providing a theoretical basis for it, called emergent realism. Evaluation as an emerging field of practice. -
CHELIMSKY AND CRONBACH(1980)
Clearly express the importance of evaluation in any democratic society with the following words: “the ability of evaluators to serve policy depends on what they know about how politics work” Chelimsky and “a theory of evaluation has to be a theory of political interactions as well as a theory of how to determine facts or how knowledge is constructe” (Cronbach). -
VEDUNG ''TPS MEANS IMPROVE INSTITUTIONAL PERFORMANCE''
TPS is therefore called to determine the worth and value of public programs, both finished and ongoing, with the main purposes of providing information to decision makers and improve institutional performance, in the spirit of “looking backwards to improve forward directions” (Vedung, 1997). ITPS evaluation concerns government intervention, it is focused on administrative outputs and outcomes and it is called to play a role in future practical action. -
VEDUNG ''DEFINITION OF EVALUATION''
Evaluation is a careful retrospective assessment of the merit, worth and value of administration, output and outcome of government intervention, which is intended to play a role in future practical situations. -
VEDUNG AND FOSS HANSEN (2005) ''MODELS''
They can schematize the theoretical mainstream in the following way: results , economic and actors models that have different purpose and present advantages and disadvantages according to the object of evaluation. -
VEDUNG'S IDEAS ABOUT EVALUATION
Evaluation as a “tool to determine the worth and value of public programs, with the purpose of providing information to decision-makers and improve institutional performance in the spirit of looking backwards to improve forward directions” (Vedung, 1997). -
RYAN OPINION
He argues that such approaches improve decision-making, are more credible, and consistent with evaluation’s overall goal of being democratic and inclusive. Different participative strategies call for different levels of stakeholder involvement and, by extension, different roles for the evaluator. The three main categories of participative approaches that are found in the literature are stakeholder-based evaluation, empowerment evaluation, and self-evaluation. -
STUFFLEBEAM ''DEFINITION OF EVALUATION''
Evaluation is a study designed and conducted to assist some audience to assess an object’s merit or worth. -
SAWHILL & WILLIAMSON ''TRADITIONAL EDUCATION''
Traditional evaluation: Still concerned with numbers, objectivity, and rigor, traditional evaluation has shifted its attention from activities and indicators such as operating expense ratios (Kaplan, 2001) to outcomes or impacts. -
TORRES AND PRESKILL; FETTERMAN, PATTON(1997) ''RESPONSIVE EVALUATION''
One of the earliest alternatives to traditional evaluation is what is known as Responsive Evaluation an approach to evaluation that is less objective and more tailored to the needs of those running the program. -
FINE, THAYER, & COGHLAN,; TORRES & PRESKILL(2011)
Traditional evaluation requires the evaluator to be objective and neutral and to be outcome-focused. -
FOSS HANSEN ''FIRST PART''
Three are, so far, the existing school of thought. On one side authors that claim that the choice of models must be based on the purpose of the evaluation (formative evaluation and stakeholder models if the evaluation is EVALUATION: DEFINITIONS, METHODS AND MODELS 27 intended to create learning, summative and goal attainment model if it is planned to control performance). -
FOSS HANSEN ''SECOND PART''
On the other side the advocates of the choice of different combination of evaluation models due to the characteristics of the object to be evaluated; and finally those that argue that evaluation design should be determined on the basis of an analysis of the problem that the object of evaluation is meantto solve. -
FEDERICA CALIDONI ''EVALUATION DEVELOPMENT''
Evaluation has became more and more of an independent science, that has its roots in many disciplines and turns out to be a useful tool for understanding and implementing policy studies, performance assessment, engineering design, investment portfolio and so on. -
SMITH ''PARADIGM WAR''
“Paradigm war” is, nowadays, still open and the debate has not yet been settled. He agrees, saying that the debate “is and was about differences in philosophy and “world view” […] No sooner is it put to bed under one guise than to raise its ugly head under another”.
