Hello, I am Melvin Mark, Professor and Head of Psychology at Penn State University. When you read books or articles about evaluation, the focus typically is on doing an upcoming evaluation. Given that conducting individual evaluations is what evaluators are usually hired to do, this focus of our books, articles, and conversations makes sense.

Hot Tip: There are a set of questions that are not about the conduct of an individual evaluation that might deserve more of our attention. Consider a few examples:

• What gets evaluated and why? For instance, do evaluation funders tend to focus on questions for youth and the disadvantaged?
• Collectively, should we try to help to bring about evaluation of certain programs or policies that have escaped evaluation (e.g., should we encourage evaluators in academic settings to take on certain work pro bono)?
• What should our professional associations try to do, beyond offering professional development, standards and principles, conferences and articles that focus on individual evaluations?
• What different roles might evaluators (and others) legitimately take on in efforts to facilitate the use of evaluation?

Exploring such questions can be fun. Moreover, I think it can help us to improve the way we conduct evaluations, to act in ways that are both ethical and useful, and to bring value to individual evaluators, to those we serve, and to the field at large.

Want to explore these questions, and others, with Mel? He will be serving as the discussant for the week of June 20-26 on AEA’s Thought Leaders Forum. Learn more online here: http://www.eval.org/thought_leaders.asp

questions, thought leaders

Hi! My name is Michael Szanyi. I am a doctoral student at Claremont Graduate University.  I’ve been studying what areas practitioners think there needs to be more research on evaluation on, and I’d like to share a rad resource with you.

Rad Resource: Whenever I need inspiration to come up with a research on evaluation idea, I refer to Melvin Mark’s chapter “Building a Better Evidence Base for Evaluation Theory” in Fundamental Issues in Evaluation, edited by Nick Smith and Paul Brandon. I re-read this chapter every time I need to remind myself of what research on evaluation actually is and when I need to get my creative juices flowing.

I think this is a rad resource because:

• Mark explains why research on evaluation is even necessary, citing both potential benefits and caveats to carrying out research on evaluation.
• The chapter outlines 4 potential subjects of inquiry (context, activities, consequences, professional issues) that can spark ideas in those categories, subcategories, and entirely different areas all together.
• The resource also describes 4 potential inquiry modes that you could use to actually carry out whatever ideas begin to emerge.
• Particularly for my demographic, it helps those in graduate programs come up with potential research and dissertation topics.

Although research on evaluation is a contentious topic in some quarters of the evaluation community, this resource helps to remind me that research on evaluation can be useful. It can help to build a better evidence base upon which to conduct more efficient and effective evaluation practice.

This contribution is from the aea365 Daily Tips blog, by and for evaluators, from the American Evaluation Association. Please consider contributing – send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org.

research, Research on Evaluation, theory