v/ Thomas Aston
Increasing recognition of complexity and “wicked” problems creates new demands for us as evaluators. In various intervention contexts, experimental and quasi-experimental methods which seek control are neither feasible nor desirable, and this prompts the search for rigorous alternatives. Yet, evaluation’s skeptical turn also demands a more pragmatic approach to maximize scarce resources in organizations.
This 3-hour professional development workshop aims to equip participants with a series of shortcuts to support those wrestling with complexity-aware evaluation methods to make more effective use of them in practice. In practice, the session will include:
- An anchoring exercise on choosing evaluative judgement criteria
- Support on how to identify parts of methods that help engage with complexity
- An exercise on how to use rubrics to assess case-based evidence.