Theory‐based evaluation: Reflections ten years on: Theory‐based evaluation: Past, present, and future

Abstract

This chapter highlights the continued salience of Weiss' s questions about theory-based evaluation, especially given the often simplistic uses of program theory in evaluation.

Impact evaluation and interventions to address climate change: a scoping study

“…The application of a theory-based approach to impact evaluation is one way of improving our understanding of why an intervention is successful or not, and to increase the policy relevance of IEs (see Birkmayer and Weiss, 2000;Cook, 2000;Rogers, 2007;White, 2009b). This approach combines rigorous counterfactual impact analysis, as outlined above, with other methods, emphasising analysis of the 'factual' using both quantitative and qualitative methods, to examine the causal chain and shed light on the 'why' and 'how' questions (Leeuw and Vaessen, 2009;White, 2009b).…”

Reflecting on evaluation practice by considering an educative values-engaged approach: How would it have changed this utilisation-focused evaluation?

“…The RFP was initially for the evaluation of a 1-year trial in 10 secondary schools, but in response to changes in the operational policy context this evolved into a 2-year evaluation involving 26 schools. The evaluation was theory-based (Rogers, 2007;Weiss, 1997), and centred strongly around a theory of change that was used "as a framework for determining the variables that should be measured in an evaluation or as a means of better understanding the evaluand" (Davidson, 2000, p. 19). The evaluation explored three main focuses: (1) the extent of implementation fidelity by teachers and schools; (2) progress made towards short-term outcomes for students; and (3) the degree of consistency with the New Zealand curriculum framework and our bicultural and multicultural context.…”

“…Drawing inspiration from these examples, this article describes a recently completed theory-based (Rogers, 2007;Weiss, 1997), utilisation-focused (Patton, 2013) evaluation and considers how the evaluation might have been portrayed from another theoretical position: an educative values-engaged perspective (Greene, 2013;Greene, DeStefano, Burgon, & Hall, 2006;Hall, Ahn, & Greene, 2012). It highlights how these approaches-both themselves hybrids of more than one evaluation theory or model-are enacted in five aspects of evaluation practice: engaging with stakeholders; use of programme theory; generating evaluation questions; methods; and analysis and reporting.…”

Impact evaluation and interventions to address climate change: a scoping study

“…The application of a theory-based approach to IE is one way of improving our understanding of why an intervention is successful or not, and to increase the policy relevance of IEs (see Birkmayer and Weiss 2000, Cook 2000, Rogers 2007, White 2009b). This approach combines rigorous counterfactual impact analysis, as outlined above, with other methods, emphasising analysis of the 'factual' using both quantitative and qualitative methods, to examine the causal chain and shed light on the 'why' and 'how' questions (Leeuw andVaessen 2009, White 2009b).…”