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Completing Your Evaluation Dissertation, Thesis, or Culminating Project
- Tamara M. Walser - University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA
- Michael S. Trevisan - Washington State University, USA
September 2020 | 232 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
This practical, user-friendly resource helps students successfully complete an evaluation capstone: a dissertation, thesis, or culminating project where a student conducts an evaluation as their capstone experience. Authors Tamara M. Walser and Michael S. Trevisan present a framework to support students and faculty in maximizing student development of evaluator competencies, addressing standards of the evaluation profession, and contributing to programs and disciplinary knowledge. Their framework, and this book, is organized by six fundamentals of evaluation practice: quality; stakeholders; understanding the program; values; approaches; and maximizing evaluation use. Throughout the book they use the metaphor of the journey to depict the processes and activities a student will experience as they navigate an evaluation capstone and the six fundamentals of evaluation practice. In pursuit of a completed capstone, students grow professionally and personally, and will be in a different place when they reach the destination and the capstone journey is complete.
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
PART 1: Essentials for Your Journey
Chapter 1 • The Evaluation Capstone
Chapter 2 • Working Productively With Your Committee
PART 2: Navigating the Six Fundamentals of Evaluation Practice
Chapter 3 • Quality: Addressing Professional Evaluation Standards and Guidelines
Chapter 4 • Stakeholders: Working With an Evaluation Client and Other Program Stakeholders
Chapter 5 • Understanding: Developing Understanding of a Program
Chapter 6 • Values: Engaging Values Through Evaluation Purpose, Questions, and Criteria
Chapter 7 • Approaches: Applying Evaluation Approaches
Chapter 8 • Use: Maximizing Evaluation Use
References
Index
"The book provides a more practical approach/guide for conducting program evaluation."
Augusta University
"A superbly written and important treatise that fills a wide gap."
George Mason University
“This is an excellent guide for students undertaking an evaluation capstone project.”
University of Central Florida
I feel like I have co-teaching partners in the classroom using this text. This is a diverse resource to be used in a classroom setting or for individualized academic research advising for culminating projects.”
St. Cloud State University
“This text is a ‘must-have’ for the student who is conducting an evaluation dissertation study. It contains the essentials for developing a research rationale using the Program Evaluation Standards. It also combines the practical points of conducting a study with the academic requirements of completing a dissertation.”
Tennessee State University
