Date
March 11 (one-day workshop)
9:00am-4:00pm
Presenter(s)
John LaVelle
University of Minnesota
My empirical work has focused on the formal development of the evaluation profession, with a specialization on understanding international job markets and university systems that are set up to meet those needs. I have explored topics such as analyzing the international job market for evaluators, the university systems across the world that prepare evaluators, and methods for reaching out to potential applied researchers and evaluators.
Description
This workshop is designed to provide practicing evaluators with an opportunity to improve their understanding of how to use theory to improve evaluation practice. Lecture, exercises, and discussions will help participants learn how to apply evaluation theories, social science theories, and stakeholder theories of change to improve the accuracy and usefulness of their evaluations. A range of examples from evaluation practice will be provided to illustrate main points and take-home messages .
Purpose
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1) Define and describe evaluation theory, social science theory, and program theory
2) Describe how theory can be used to improve evaluation practice
3) Describe how implicit and explicit social science theories can be used to guide evaluation decisions
4) Describe the components and processes of several commonly used social science theories that have been used to develop and evaluate programs
5) Describe how developing stakeholder’ theories of change can be used to improve evaluation practice