Evaluative attitude in action: Using the Learn Evaluation Assessment Portal in graduate education
| Published date | 01 December 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X241293809 |
| Author | Amy M Gullickson,Shin Tanabe,Erin R Davis,Jane L Howard,Sarah Gonzalez |
| Date | 01 December 2024 |
Practice Article
Evaluation Journal of Australasia
2024, Vol. 24(4) 322–339
© The Author(s) 2024
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1035719X241293809
journals.sagepub.com/home/evj
Evaluative attitude in action:
Using the Learn Evaluation
Assessment Portal in graduate
education
Amy M Gullickson
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Shin Tanabe
World Bank, Japan
Erin R Davis
Clear Horizon, Australia
Jane L Howard
Victoria Department of Health, Australia
Sarah Gonzalez
Phoenix Space, USA
Abstract
Evaluation students need a sense of how the expertise they bring and the knowledge
and skills they are learning relate to the tasks of evaluation and to their own ongoing
professional development. Within the Master of Evaluation and the Graduate Cer-
tificate in Evaluation at The University of Melbourne’s Assessment and Evaluation
Research Centre (formerly the Centre for Program Evaluation), students use an
evaluator competencies self-assessment to inform their coursework and practice
across three subjects. In this paper, the authors –the coordinator of the subjects and
several students –share practices and examples of how the self-assessment added value
for their learning. Discussion of the logistics, ethical requirements, and appropriate use
given the limitations of self-assessments provide ideas for integrating self-assessment
Corresponding author:
Amy M Gullickson, The University of Melbourne, 100 Leicester St, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
Email: amy.gullickson@unimelb.edu.au
into the design and delivery evaluation capacity building or formal courses to increase
ownership of learning for adults who want to expand their evaluation expertise.
Keywords
evaluator competencies, self-assessment, evaluation capacity building, evaluation
capstone, evaluation education, teaching evaluation
What we already know
•Self-assessment is helpful for adult learning.
•Self-assessment in evaluation is important due to the profession lacking
formal assessment of skills and knowledge, and the diverse backgrounds of
evaluators.
The original contribution the article makes to theory and/
or practice
•Description of and reasoning for using evaluator self-assessment to guide
learning in graduate education.
•Logistics and ethics of implementation in formal education and publication.
•Examples of student assessments and impacts on learning based on their
self-assessment.
•Implications and ideas for other organisations wanting to implement self-
assessment.
Introduction
Davidson (2005) states that good evaluation delivers useful criticism. Therefore, eval-
uators must have an ‘evaluative attitude’(p. 35) about theirown practice and conclusions,
that is, they must actively seek all criticism and use it to improve. The Australian
Evaluation Society (AES) embedded evaluative attitude i nto their Evaluators’Professional
Learning Competency Framework (AES Professional Learning Committee, 2013;
Gullickson et al, this issue) in the Evaluation Attitude and Professional Practice Domain.
This Domain applies evaluative attitude to awareness of one’s evaluation knowledge and
skills as critically important for evaluators, demonstrated by three related competencies:
·Demonstrate self-awareness (acknowledge competencies and competency gaps,
practices self-assessment/self-reflection).
Gullickson et al. 323
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