Introducing Evidence-Based Principles to Guide Collaborative Approaches to Evaluation

Abstract

This article introduces a set of evidence-based principles to guide evaluation practice in contexts where evaluation knowledge is collaboratively produced by evaluators and stakeholders. The data from this study evolved in four phases: two pilot phases exploring the desirability of developing a set of principles; an online questionnaire survey that drew on the expertise of 320 practicing evaluators to identify dimensions, factors or characteristics that enhance or impede success in collaborative approaches in evaluation (CAE); and finally a validation phase involving a subsample of 58 evaluators who participated in the main phase. The principles introduced here stem from the experiences of evaluators who have engaged in CAE in a wide variety of evaluation settings and contexts and the lessons they have learned. They are understood to be interconnected and loosely temporally ordered. We expect the principles to evolve over time, as evaluators learn more about collaborative approaches in context. With this in mind, we pose questions for consideration to stimulate further inquiry.

Applying the Collaborative Approaches to Evaluation (CAE) Principles in an Educational Evaluation: Reflections from the Field

“…In this practice note, I reflect on the experience of working with the CAE principles as a guide in planning, implementing, and managing a year-long col laborative inquiry in a higher education setting. This analysis connects directly to two of the four suggestions provided by Shulha et al (2016) for integrating the principles into evaluation practice and scholarship: (1) applying the principles as "a guide to planning and implementing CAE, " and (2) using the principles as "a basis for retrospective reflection on completed projects (with an eye to surfacing lessons learned)" (p. 212). I used the following questions to guide my analysis of the CAE principles:…”

Supporting Transitions to Sustainability: Evaluation for Managing Processes in the Public Interest

“…These iterative features of adaptive management are common in organization theory, and so it is not surprising that current evaluation frameworks advocate a similar iterative, ongoing, adaptive approach to evaluation. For example, the collaborative evaluation approach (Cousins & Whitmore, ; Shulha, Whitmore, Cousins, Gilbert, & Hudib, ) envisions evaluation as an iterative collaborative process that serves adaptive management, and Patton's () developmental evaluation is premised on the same types of formative information needs for ongoing problem‐solving. That these respected evaluation approaches correspond to the recommendations in the sustainability literature is validating for all, but it also suggests that current evaluation approaches could easily incorporate more of the sustainability concepts and related wisdom from practice.…”

L'élaboration et la mise en œuvre des recommandations issues d'évaluations de programmes au gouvernement du Canada

“…; Marchand ; Patton ; Shulha et coll. ). Ces approches ont été développées, entre autres, pour encourager la diffusion des connaissances issues de l'évaluation ainsi que son utilisation directe et indirecte (Johnson et coll.…”