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Utilization-focused evaluation


Detaljer

Seneste udgave, Bog


Sprog
engelsk
Omfang
xx, 667 s., ill., 26 cm
Udgivet
2008
Ophav
Genre og form
bibliografier

Beskrivelse


Summary: In the Fourth Edition of the best-selling Utilization-Focused Evaluation, leading evaluation expert Michael Quinn Patton shows readers how to conduct program evaluations - from beginning to end - that will yield useful results. Using a lively writing style, Patton offers readers a clear and comprehensive understanding of how to improve program evaluation. He includes tips ranging from how to identify primary users of an evaluation to how to present one?s findings. Patton imbues the book with a definite point of view developed from observing much of what has passed for program evaluation that has not been very useful. Key features of the fourth edition: Provides thoroughly updated materials, including more international content; new references; new exhibits and sidebars; and new examples, stories, and cartoons; Includes follow-up exercises at the end of each chapter; Features a utilization-focused evaluation checklist; Gives a greater emphasis on mixed methods; Analyzes the pluses and minuses of the increased emphasis on accountability and performance measurements in government at all levels; Details the explosion of international evaluation.

Indhold

Toward more useful evaluations. Evaluation use : both challenge and mandate -- What is utilization-focused evaluation? How do you get started? -- Fostering intended use by intended users : the personal factor -- Intended uses of findings -- Intended process uses : impacts of evaluation, thinking and experiences -- Focusing evaluations : choices, options and decisions. Being active-reactive-adaptive : evaluator roles, situational responsiveness, and strategic, contingency thinking -- Beyond the goals. Clarification game : focusing on outcomes -- Focusing an evaluation : alternatives to goals-based evaluation -- Implementation evaluation. What happened in the program? -- The program's theory of action : conceptualizing casual linkages -- Appropriate methods. Evaluations worth using : utilization-focused, methods decisions -- The paradigms debate and a utilitarian synthesis -- The meanings of evaluation data : analysis, interpretation, judgment, and reporting -- Realities and practicalities of utilization-focused evaluation. Power, politics, and ethics -- Utilization-focused evaluation : process and premises