1. Stephanie Sowl Clarin Collins Audrey Amrein-Beardsley
Teaching and Learning to Enhance Evaluation Practices: Striving to Optimize Student Learning Outcomes by Blending Evaluation Theory and Application
Stephanie Sowl Clarin Collins Audrey Amrein-Beardsley

2. Purpose
Importance of balancing theory and practice in teaching evaluation
Necessity in doing a better job to ensure graduates are prepared for evaluation work

3. Background PhD Level Course Masters Level Course More theoretical
Independently researched evaluation design and methodological approaches
More practical
Collaboratively designed and executed an actual program evaluation, directly applying the curriculum

4. Methodology
Survey aligned to the Essential Competencies for Program Evaluators Self-Assessment (Ghere, King, Stevahn & Minnema, 2006) to investigate student perspectives
Internal consistency of all constructs had alpha levels ranging from 0.76 to 0.97
t-tests and Cohen’s d were used for analysis
Semi-structured interviews after evaluation completion with the program leaders of the program the students evaluated

5. Findings

6. Findings continued

7. Findings continued
Program leaders were satisfied with the outcomes of the evaluation as some of their suspicions of issues within the program were shown to have merit with data collected
The evaluation highlighted areas of weakness within the program that leaders wish to investigate further with a second program evaluation

8. Significance
Can more appropriately help students learn about program evaluation in theory and in practice
Arms students with necessary evaluation tools but also ability to clearly communicate to multiple audiences about data and findings
Time-consuming to work with leaders for program evaluation and timeline for students to complete evaluation in a semester was aggressive, but it provided students an opportunity they would have otherwise not had

9. Any questions?

10. References
Chelimsky, E. (2013). Balancing evaluation theory and practice in the real world. American Journal of Evaluation, 34(1), doi: /
Christie, C. A. (2003). What guides evaluation? A study of how evaluation practice maps onto evaluation theory. New Directions for Evaluation, 97, 7-35.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hilsdale. NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 2.
Ghere, G., King, J.A., Stevahn, L., & Minnema, J. (2006). A professional development unit for reflecting on program evaluator competencies. American Journal of Evaluation, 27(1), doi: /