Category Archives: Resources

Australian book launch of ‘Purposeful Program Theory’, Canberra 17 March

After years working on this with my co-author Sue Funnell, I’m looking forward to the launch of the book Purposeful Program Theory: Effective Use of Theories of Change and Logic Models in Canberra next Thursday (Yes, on St Patrick’s Day). … Continue reading

Posted in Causal inference, Evaluation team composition, Evaluation Theory, Recommended books, Uncategorized, Use of evaluation | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Strengthening Evaluation Effectiveness – seminar, Washington DC

I’m in Washington DC this week, after teaching a course on Using Program Theory and Logic Models for Evaluation at The Evaluators Institute. Fortunately I will be able to stay on for a seminar being presented this coming Wednesday by … Continue reading

Posted in About/Definition, Causal inference, Civil society engagement, Professional development, The client's role | Tagged | Leave a comment

Friday Funny – community engagement and evidence-based policy

Policy that is developed in response to clearly identified needs and through careful processes of community engagement – while being feasible in an adversarial political system and short timeframes?  Time for the Hollowmen to show us how it can be … Continue reading

Posted in Adequate scope, Appropriate criteria and standards, Appropriate reporting, Civil society engagement, Community programs, Friday Funnies, Government programs, Professional development, Synthesis of findings, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Free webinar on Evaluation and Policies

Is policy evaluation fundamentally different to program evaluation? How can lessons learned from program evaluation (such as the value of stakeholder involvement) be applied to the evaluation of policies? The next webinar in the series of monthly live webinars on … Continue reading

Posted in Development, Professional development, Strategic policy evaluation | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Who’s afraid of the Big Bad … Thought?

At the recent conference of the Australasian Evaluation Society, Tom Schwandt gave an entertaining and thought-provoking keynote in which he talked about a societal phenomenon called ‘phronemophobia’. [Tom assured us this really was an existing word in the English language … Continue reading

Posted in Appropriate inference, Appropriate measurement, Professional development, Values-based | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments