Realistic Evaluation

by Nick Pawson Ray; Tilley

Realistic Evaluation shows how program evaluation needs to be and can be bettered. It presents a profound yet highly readable critique of current evaluation practice and introduces a 'manifesto' and 'handbook' for a fresh approach. The main body of this book is devoted to the articulation of a new evaluation paradigm which promises greater validity and utility from the findings of evaluation studies. The authors, Ray Pawson and Nick Tilley, call this new approach 'Realistic Evaluation' reflecting the paradigm's foundation in scientific realist philosophy, its commitment to the idea that programs deal with real problems, and its primary intention which is to inform realistic developments in policy making that benefit program participants and the public. The authors argue with persuasion and passion that scientific evaluation requires a careful blend of theory and method, quality and quantity, ambition and realism. Using practical examples throughout and grounded in the major fields of program evaluation, the book offers a complete blueprint for evaluation activities, running from design to data collection and analysis to the cumulation of findings across programs and onto the realization of research into policy.

Genres: Realistic Fiction, Academic

Paperback

First published April 23, 1997

Reviews

[Tavis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for diploma of policy and program evaluation. They summarize realistic evaluation in one (run-on) sentence:

The perspective begins with a theory of causal explanation based on generative principles which supposes that regularities in the patterning of social activities are brought about by the underlying mechanism constituted by people's reasoning and the resources they are able to summon in a particular context, which gives research the task of testing theories of how program outcomes are generated by specific mechanisms and contexts, a task which involves making inter- and intra-program comparisons in order to see which context-mechanism-outcome configurations are efficacious, which thus sees programming as an attempt to embody knowledge which has thus identified what works for whom in what circumstances, knowledge of which accumulates over successive trials of a program and from other forms of empirical research, providing policy makers with families of theories specifying typologies of successful context-mechanism-outcome combinations, knowledge of which is promulgated by a teaching and learning process in which the stakeholders' fragmentary expertise is marshalled by the researcher.