Everyday Evaluation on the Run

'Practical, useful counsel emanates throughout. Impressively grounded in real world experiences.' - Michael Quinn Patton, author of Utilisation-Focused Evaluation Effective evaluation can provide valuable insights into the way a program, a course or an organisation is being run, and direction for improvement. This widely-used introduction to evaluation is intended for non-specialists in the human services who need to do evaluation as part of a busy workload. Everyday Evaluation on the Run offers a practical over view of the main approaches to evaluation, strategies for involving stakeholders, and the evaluation industry's toolbox of models and techniques. The author emphasises the core principles and concepts of evaluation, and the idea of building a culture of evaluation. This third edition of Everyday Evaluation on the Run reflects current thinking on values in organisations and the need to use evaluation to guide future practice rather than just as an auditing process. With extensive examples, it is a handy reference for professionals and students in health, welfare, and community work, and in government and non-profit agencies.

Yoland Wadsworth is a path-breaker in methodology and use of social research and evaluation in health, community and human services. She is Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT University, a Principal Fellow in the McCaughey VicHealth Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing, University of Melbourne and a Fellow of the Australasian Evaluation Society (FAES). She is author of the bestselling Do It Yourself Social Research and of Building in Research and Evaluation: Human inquiry for living systems.

Foreword to the first edition Preface to the first edition Preface to the second edition Preface to the third edition Acknowledgements & Dedication Guide to contents List of Guides and Diagram Who and what this book is for The value of doing everyday evaluation - and why we don't do it Whose values? But how on earth can we make time for it? 1 What is evaluation? 2 The evaluative research cycle 3 Open inquiry and audit review 4 Developing a culture of evaluation 5 Models and techniques