Bringing Evaluative Learning to Life

This excerpt from the opening plenary asks evaluators to consider two questions regarding learning and evaluation: (a) How do evaluators know if, how, when, and what people are learning during an evaluation? and (b) In what ways can evaluation be a learning experience? To answer the first question, evaluators can apply the commonplaces of evaluative learning, where, in a given evaluative context, the evaluator is a teacher, the clients/participants are students, and the process and results of the evaluation are the curriculum. To answer the second question, evaluators can consider two ideas for understanding evaluative learning: (a) evaluation for accountability and control and (b) evaluation for program development.