Book Review: Practical Evaluation for Educators: Finding What Works and What Doesn't
| Author | John Owen |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X0700700109 |
| Published date | 01 March 2007 |
| Date | 01 March 2007 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
BOOK REVIEWS
Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2007
54
qualitative methods in the period
1990–2003, Shek, Tan and
Han (2005) found that there
were problems in the quality
of these studies with regard to
philosophical basis, auditability,
bias, truth value, consistency
and critical interpretations
of the data. Equally, it could
be argued that there are also
limitations associated with
the use of inferential statistics.
Realist enquirers should be
less preoccupied with debate
between quantitative and
qualitative approaches, and
more with promoting the
practice of making the best use
of the different types of data
that may be available to draw
appropriate conclusions for
practice. With the infl uence
of the realist paradigm, we
can develop the practice of
evaluation with the perspective
of investigating what works
and in what circumstances,
regardless of whether
our preferred approach is
quantitative, qualitative or a
mixture of the two.
Mansoor AF Kazi
Research Associate Professor
& Director Program Evaluation
Center, School of Social Work,
University at Buffalo (The State
University of New York).
(Mansoor Kazi is also a Reader
at the University of Huddersfi eld,
United Kingdom).
Email: <mkazi@buffalo.edu>
References
Kazi, MAF 2003, Realist evaluation
in practice: health and social
work, Sage, London.
Kazi, MAF & Pagkos, B 2007,
Evaluation of academy
school@44 (school year
2006–07), Program Evaluation
Center, School of Social Work,
University at Buffalo (The
State University of New York),
Buffalo, New York.
Lawson, T 1998, ‘Economic science
without experimentation/
abstractions’, in M Archer, R
Bhaskar, A Collier, T Lawson,
T & Norrie, A (eds), Critical
realism: essential readings,
Routledge, London, pp. 144–
185.
Mäntysaari, M 2005, ‘Realism as
a foundation for social work
knowledge’, Qualitative Social
Work, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 87–98.
Pawson, R & Tilley, N 1997,
Realistic evaluation, Sage,
London.
Sayer, A 1998, ‘Abstraction: a realist
interpretation’, in M Archer, R
Bhaskar, A Collier, T Lawson &
A Norrie (eds), Critical realism:
essential readings, Routledge,
London, pp. 120–143.
Title: Practical Evaluation for Educators: Finding What Works and What Doesn’t
Authors: Roger Kaufman, Ingrid Guerra and William A Platt
Publisher: Corwin Press, a Sage company, Thousand Oaks, California
Publication date: 2006
Extent/type: 299 pages, paperback
Price: A$69 from Footprint Books which offers a 15% discount to AES members, phone (02) 9997 3973
ISBN: 0-7619-3198-8
This book purports to provide
a straightforward approach
to assist practitioners to do
evaluations. The focus is
unabashedly education and,
within this fi eld, on evaluating
the extent to which programs
promote student learning
outcomes.
The book is based on an
Organisational Elements Model
designed to ‘provide you with
a framework for examining
the functional effectiveness and
integration of organisations and
their members who are charged
with meeting the educational
requirements, based on the
identifi ed needs of society’ (p. 25).
The model is based on a
‘Basic Ideal Vision: the world
we want to help create for
tomorrow’s child’ (p. 42). The
detailed statement of this vision
has overtones of Bob Hawke’s
infamous statement about no
Australian child living in poverty.
The authors use the Vision as
the basis for doing evaluations
using a four-part sequential
Evaluation Action Plan:
Alignment and Direction1
Observation2
Results3
Action and Adjustment.4
Within each part a scenario
is presented that is designed to
illustrate concepts to a case,
such as an evaluation of a school
district for a new superintendent
(in the USA). The parameters
described suggest strongly
that the contents encourage a
systems approach to evaluation,
reinforced by the use of this
example. This school-based
focus limits the use of this book
for other educational evaluation
areas, such as adult learning, and
Shek, DTL, Tang, VMY & Han, XY
2005, ‘Evaluation of evaluation
studies using qualitative research
methods in the social work
literature (1990–2003): evidence
that constitutes a wake-up
call’, Research on Social Work
Practice, vol. 15, no. 3, pp.
180–194.
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