Learning from Experience: Novices' Journey Through An Evaluation

Abstract

The field of evaluation is expanding and there is a growing need for trained evaluators to enter the workforce. To meet these demands, it is important for those who want to enter this profession to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to conduct program evaluations. The literature on the best practices to train evaluators continues to grow and this thesis documents the learning journey for myself and two other novice evaluators on our journey conducting an evaluation. Using self-study and collaborative inquiry, this research answered the following questions: (1) What attitudes, competencies and skills were developed through conducting this evaluation? (2) What aspects of this experience contributed to our growth and in what ways could these be considered for future experiential learning opportunities? (3) What were some of the successes and challenges of conducting an evaluation as a novice evaluator? Through a mixed-methods approach, analysis found that this experiential learning opportunity was successful in contributing to the development of skills across all evaluation domains and played an important role in my changed attitude towards evaluation and collaboration. The collaborative nature of the evaluation both within the team and with our collaborator also contributed to the success of this project. Lastly, the experiential nature of the project, being able to collaborate with a real organization was an integral part of our experience. This thesis concludes with a discussion on the implications of the findings for evaluation novices, groups learning evaluation, evaluation instructors and the field of evaluation overall.