Theories of Evaluation

Theories of Evaluation TIG Week: Conclusion to Theory Week by John LaVelle and Jennifer Billman

Dear friends, John LaVelle (UMN) and Jennifer Billman (HACC) here again to wrap up this week’s Theories of Evaluation series of posts.  First off, we are grateful to all the week’s contributors for their reflections on  evaluation theory and how theory shows up in their practice.  We are also grateful for their honesty about some …

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Theories of Evaluation TIG Week: Ontology in the Time of Climate Emergency by Eric Einspruch

Hi, I’m Eric Einspruch, an AEA member since 1991, and one of the founders and a past President of the Oregon Program Evaluators Network . I am the Principal of ELE Consulting, LLC, which provides research, evaluation, and technical assistance services that balance rigor and real-world constraints to generate meaningful and actionable results. I have also taught graduate-level program …

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Theories of Evaluation TIG Week: Developmental Evaluation in Practice by Elizabeth DiLuzio

Hi everyone! My name is Elizabeth (Liz) DiLuzio, Lead Curator and sometimes writer for AEA365. I am an evaluator and educator who has conducted evaluations and built capacities with non-profits, government entities, and foundations from New Hampshire to Nevada. Today, I want to talk about a less discussed but incredibly helpful and fulfilling approach to …

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Theories of Evaluation TIG Week: Corpus Linguistics: What’s All This Talk About Evaluation? by Aaron Kates

Hi, my name is Aaron Kates, I am a recent graduate of the Interdisciplinary PhD in Evaluation Program at Western Michigan University. I live in South Bend, Indiana and work as a consultant with EffectX, an independent evaluation firm.  Today I will be sharing a few resources I found about a topic I learned about …

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Theories of Evaluation TIG Week: Strengthening our Evaluative Thinking through Critical Theory by Dylan Felt

Hi Everyone! Dylan Felt (she/her) here from the Evaluation, Data Integration, and Technical Assistance (EDIT) Research Program at Northwestern University. Today, I’m excited to be sharing a little bit about Critical Theory and why it matters so much in evaluation theory and practice. If evaluation theory is “who we are” (Shadish, 1998), then Critical Theory …

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Theories of Evaluation TIG Week: Should We Create or Adopt Standardized Definitions for Evaluation Types? by Marshall Young

Hello! My name is Marshall Young, I am a first-year doctoral student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department pursuing a degree in Evaluation, Statistics, and Methodology. One area I am interested in is evaluation theory and how it relates with practice. Although I am relatively new to …

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Theories of Evaluation TIG Week: Introduction to Theory Week by John LaVelle and Jennifer Billman

Dear friends, Our names are John LaVelle (UMN) and Jennifer Billman (HACC).  We are the co-chairs of the Theories of Evaluation TIG, and it is our pleasure to introduce this week of AEA365 posts on evaluation theory.  First, we acknowledge that theory, and what we mean by theory, can be confusing as “theory” can mean …

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Sharing My Top 10 Evaluation Doubts by Sara Vaca

Hi, I am Sara Vaca (Independent Evaluator and Saturday’s contributor to this blog). One day some months ago I tweeted that this book by Michael Patton (Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice) was solving two thirds of my evaluation doubts. “What is the other third?” he replied. And he left me thinking. …

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Theory & Practice Week: Getting to Know You: The Necessity of Evaluator Reflection by Cherie Avent

Hi Everyone! My name is Cherie Avent, and I am a second year Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina Greensboro with a focus on program evaluation and research methods. I have been fortunate to work on diverse evaluation projects in which the faculty allow students to lead and select the theory that would …

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Theory & Practice Week: What’s real!?! How your Understanding of Reality Can (and does) subconsciously Affect your Methods by Justin Long

Hello all, My name is Justin Long and I am a 4th year M.S./PhD student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I was always told to use methods and the evaluation theory that fit the context. If an evaluation is better served through a participatory evaluation then don’t force an deliberative-democratic evaluation approach. …

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