Ben Gammon Consulting Different perspectives on evaluation What it is Why it is needed How it should be done

Ben Gammon Consulting One perspective Teaching a pig to sing? Evaluation –costs money –needs staff –takes up time –annoys colleagues So why bother?

Ben Gammon Consulting Why bother? The ultimate root is the desire to improve But whose desire is this? And what is to be improved? Two different perspectives

Ben Gammon Consulting Funders ask for evaluation to be done To assess impact of a project So they can make better funding decisions in future

Ben Gammon Consulting

Practitioners do evaluation To assess impact of a project To meet funders’ needs And so they can support future funding bids To sustain impact

Ben Gammon Consulting Practitioners do evaluation To assess impact of a project To meet funders’ needs And support future bids To sustain impact And to improve practice So as to increase impact

Ben Gammon Consulting

Impact plus Evidence of impact only tells you part of the story –Whether something works / doesn’t work You also need to know where, when, why, how … –So you can sustain, increase or fix it

Ben Gammon Consulting Evaluation needs to study impact and process of learning

Ben Gammon Consulting Why you need to look at process? It’s about perspectives You cannot think & act like a visitor Impact is not guaranteed Need to understand visitors’ changing wants, motivations, prior attitudes & knowledge

Ben Gammon Consulting Visitors’ motivations Heavily influence what impact is achieved E.g. Pekarik et al.(1999) –Object-centred –Information –Social –Introspective Object & Information; Social & Introspective motivations often in conflict

Ben Gammon Consulting Visitors’ attitudes Often match those of exhibit developers –Makes changing attitudes very difficult Attitudes consist of beliefs, opinions & values (Worcester 2006) –Values are very hard to change The problem of the deficit model –False assumption that increasing knowledge leads to increased support

Ben Gammon Consulting Visitors’ entry narratives Entry narratives –How visitors construe & contemplate the world –What they know about the subject –Personal experience & memories Visitors perceive what they expect to see –Rather than what the exhibition team wanted them to perceive

Ben Gammon Consulting Another perspective The need to look for failure

Ben Gammon Consulting Barriers to learning & engagement Physical –Visitors cannot do, see, hear or reach something Intellectual –Visitors cannot understand what to do –Activity is too challenging –Activity is too easy Motivation –It’s boring –Takes too long –Too obvious –It’s not relevant to them

Ben Gammon Consulting Effective evaluation Tells you what worked & what didn’t AND why it worked / didn’t work Looks at the process of learning as well as outcomes Good evaluation leads to change –Feeds into future practice

Ben Gammon Consulting The singing pig Successful evaluation Helps funders make better decisions Helps you raise money And improves practice –Better exhibits, programmes, web-sites –Happier visitors –More effective use of money –Happier funders