Читать книгу An Introduction to Evaluation - Chris Fox - Страница 17

This brings us to the third group of definitions identified by Mark et al. (2006), which concentrate on the function evaluation serves and assume that evaluation involves judgements of value. As an example of a definition of evaluation based on judgements of value, Mark et al. (2006) cite Scriven’s definition:

Evaluation refers to the process of determining the merit, worth, or value of something, or the product of that process ... The evaluation process normally involves some identification of relevant standards of merit, worth, or value; some investigation of the performance of the evaluands on these standards; and some integration or synthesis of the results to achieve an overall evaluation or set of associated evaluations. (Scriven 1991: 139; emphasis added)

Lincoln and Guba (1986), when considering what makes evaluation different from research, argue that latter is undertaken to resolve a problem while evaluation is undertaken to establish value. They also define research as: ‘a type of disciplined inquiry undertaken to resolve some problem in order to achieve understanding or to facilitate action’ (1986: 549), whereas evaluation is defined as:

a type of disciplined inquiry undertaken to determine the value (merit and/or worth) of some entity – the evaluand – such as a treatment, program, facility, performance, and the line – in order to improve or refine the evaluand (formative evaluation) or to assess its impact (summative evaluation). (1986: 550)

This difference, which Lincoln and Guba describe as ‘monumental’, also leads to what they see as a key distinction in the products that result. Whereas research is typically adequately served by a technical report, this by itself is rarely sufficient for an evaluation if it has to meet the needs of, and communicate with, its various audiences (Lincoln and Guba 1986).¹