Tag Archives: critical thinking

Who’s afraid of the Big Bad … Thought?

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Jane Davidson

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

More utterly uncritical media reporting of evaluation

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Jane Davidson

As an evaluator, or even as an interested member of the public, what very basic fundamental information would you expect to see in a newspaper article that kicked off like this?

Chiefs get good marks even if departments don’t

Public sector leaders are mostly embracing challenges thrown to them by the Government, though at least one is “lost at sea”, a report says.

The Trans Tasman Media report, which ranks government agencies and bosses, has found that chief executives are generally performing better than their departments. Continue reading →

Posted in Appropriate criteria and standards, Appropriate reporting, Government programs | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Video seminar – Turning Evidence into Action: Thinking differently on how we think

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Patricia Rogers

Over time do we become an individual who has many great dreams but accomplishes few of them or a person who spends less and less time pondering how ‘a thing’ could be so much more and become delivery or “do” focused”? A videoconference workshop Australia 1 June.

Continue reading →

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Friday funny – drawing conclusions

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Patricia Rogers

The second-funniest joke in the world, according to Richard Wiseman’s LaughLab, was the joke submitted by Geoff Anandappa of Blackpool, which is clearly about the importance of focusing key messages in evaluation summaries.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were going camping. They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night Holmes woke Watson up and said: “Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you see.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Friday Funnies | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Culture – insiders’ and outsiders’ insights – and genuine evaluation

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Jane Davidson

One great area of interest for me is the study of organizational culture and organizational culture change. I’d like to present a few ideas from that area and see how they apply to the concept of culture more generally. And, how these insights might be able to drive us closer to genuine evaluation. What mix of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ can provide rich insights into what really matters and help surface important undiscussables? Continue reading →

Posted in Community programs, Cultural context, Government programs, The client's role, Values-based | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments