2020
DOI: 10.1177/1098214020920710
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What Is Evaluation?: Perspectives of How Evaluation Differs (or Not) From Research

Abstract: With a lack of consensus of what evaluation is within the field of evaluation, there is a difficulty in communicating to nonevaluators what evaluation is and how evaluation differs from research. To understand how evaluation is defined, both evaluators and researchers were asked how they defined evaluation and, if at all, differentiated evaluation from research. Overall, evaluators believed research and evaluation intersect, whereas researchers believed evaluation is a subcomponent of research. Furthermore, ev… Show more

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Cited by 46 publications
(33 citation statements)
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“…This might or might not be carried out rigorously, and differs from scientific assessment with the aim of creating theory. Indeed, although the two kinds of assessment can go together, the former is relatively less concerned with generalizing theoretical mechanisms and making them available to the extended scholarly community, and relatively more concerned with the success of specific (futures and foresight) projects (Wanzer, 2020). This, however, impedes the incremental theoretical progress of the field as a whole.…”
Section: The Resistance To Scientific Theory In Futures and Foresightmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This might or might not be carried out rigorously, and differs from scientific assessment with the aim of creating theory. Indeed, although the two kinds of assessment can go together, the former is relatively less concerned with generalizing theoretical mechanisms and making them available to the extended scholarly community, and relatively more concerned with the success of specific (futures and foresight) projects (Wanzer, 2020). This, however, impedes the incremental theoretical progress of the field as a whole.…”
Section: The Resistance To Scientific Theory In Futures and Foresightmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Levin-Rozalis (2003) noted that in her professional practice, she frequently encounters a lack of understanding of the difference between research and evaluation, and it "is at the expense of evaluation" (p. 2). Wanzer (2021) found evidence of five different conceptualizations of the relationship between research and evaluation held by practicing evaluators (e.g., evaluation and research as a Venn diagram, evaluation as a type of applied research), which are also present in scholarly writing defining evaluation (Mathison, 2008;Mertens, 2014;Rallis, 2014;Scriven, 2008;Vedung, 2004). In Wanzer's study, while most AEA members were more likely than Division H (Research, Evaluation, and Assessment in Schools) American Educational Research Association members to consider themselves evaluators, only 62% conceived of evaluation-research relationship as being like a Venn diagram.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The societal need to find evidence for how a chosen policy or program takes effect has given rise to development of various ways to do evaluation [23][24][25]. Increasingly, the approaches recognizing the complexity of the current operational environment have gained foothold in the field.…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%