Interactive Evaluation Practice: Managing the Interpersonal Dynamics of Program Evaluation

by Professor Jean A. King, Laurie Stevahn

You've taken your introduction to evaluation course and are about to do your first evaluation project. Where do you begin? Interactive Evaluation Managing the Interpersonal Dynamics of Program Evaluation helps bridge the gap between the theory of evaluation and its practice, giving students the specific skills they need to use in different evaluation settings. Jean A. King and Laurie Stevahn present readers with three organizing frameworks (derived from social interdependence theory from social psychology, evaluation use research, and the evaluation capacity building literature) for thinking about evaluation practice. These frameworks help readers track the various skills or strategies to use for distinctive evaluation situations. In addition, the authors provide explicit advice about how to solve specific evaluation problems. Numerous examples throughout the text bring interactive practice to life in a variety of settings.

Hardcover

First published April 12, 2010

Reviews

[Yatin Diwakar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read for early career evaluators. Exposes to a lot of concepts which are relevant to development sector evaluations. I felt like i ought to take down notes a lot, but luckily it had a few appendices at the end and referenced the sources and i just jotted those down for now.
So this is an effective text book, not only it covered a new topic for me thoroughly, but also pointed me to relevant literature in the field.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't truly appreciate this book until I was about halfway through, something happened on one of my evaluations, and then the next chapter I read was all about managing conflict and working with difficult stakeholders. Once I had a real-world experience to relate all of the lessons from the book back to, it made all the difference - and allowed me to really read with a purpose. It should be on he shelf of all evaluators.