| Session Title: Thinking Critically About Masters' Education in Evaluation: Experiences From an Education Program in Sweden |
| Multipaper Session 326 to be held in Wekiwa 10 on Thursday, Nov 12, 1:40 PM to 3:10 PM |
| Sponsored by the Teaching of Evaluation TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| Ove Karlsson Vestman, Malardalen University, ove.karlsson@mdh.se |
| Abstract: In 2008, we initiated a masters program in evaluation at our two universities - Malardalen and Orebro Universities in Sweden. The program, like many masters' program, is designed to support the development of evaluation practitioners. Our experiences to date have generated a number of issues related to designing a masters-level education in evaluation. These issues include, for example, important prerequisites for students; the nature and role of evaluation theory that should be presented; the order in which theory and practice are presented, and how they can be integrated in the program design; and how best to introduce students to evaluation as a profession. This paper session will engage these issues through reflections on our program design, student perceptions gathered from our first-year students and modest comparisons to other masters' programs in evaluation. |
| Reflections on the Masters' Program Design |
| Kari Jess, Malardalen University, kari.jess@mdh.se |
| Osman Aytar, Malardalen University, osman.aytar@mdh.se |
| The original design of our masters' program was based on reasoned decisions about what kinds of students would likely be interested in this program and what kinds of knowledge and skills evaluation practitioners need to be credible and to conduct defensible evaluations in contemporary society? After one year of program operation, we are now questioning some of these decisions. The student profile, for example, was not as expected, and a number of students have withdrawn from the program, claiming that it was 'too theoretical.' This presentation will use student feedback data and faculty reflections to share experiences with our program as designed and as implemented. The presentation will concentrate on the most salient program design issues identified in our data from students and our own critical reflections. |
| Perspectives on Theory and Practice in Master's Education in Evaluation in Relation to Social Work |
| Lars Oscarsson, Orebro University, lars.oscarsson@oru.se |
| Christian Kullberg, Orebro University, christian.kullberg@oru.se |
| Theory-practice tensions are common to all fields of professional practice, and thus to the educational preparation of professionals in that field. Evaluation is no exception. And if you combine evaluation with social work, another professional field characterized by such a tension, you have an educational context including not only theoretical and methodological issues, but also dimensions of ethical and political nature; this since social work practice as well as evaluation includes, and take place within, a societal context of political, professional, and consumer ambitions and expectations. So, in our masters' program in evaluation, we have had to engage with questions like, the following. Should we start our instruction with evaluation theory or practice, or social work practice? What kind of connections between theory and practice in evaluation and in social work, should our program foster, and how can we best do this? What kinds of challenges to the conventional separation of theory and practice are important for students aspiring to be evaluation practitioners in social work in view of the political and ethical aspects of that societal arena and professional field? This paper will raise these kinds of issues about the ongoing theory-practice relationship as relevant to our masters' program design and implementation. |
| Comparisons of Ideas in Evaluation Masters' Programs |
| Ove Karlsson Vestman, Malardalen University, ove.karlsson@mdh.se |
| Georgie Parry-Crook, London Metropolitan University, g.parry-crooke@londonmet.ac.uk |
| Using information on the web, selected literature and presentations on evaluation masters' program at the 2008 European Evaluation Society conference, this presentation will begin to draw comparisons between the program developed and used at Malardalen University and Örebro University to other programs for master education in evaluation. Some of the question that will be addressed is what target groups are the programs trying to reach? Is it policy and program planners, managers or consultants, teachers, nurses, social workers and other practitioners? What aims for the programs are the most common? Is it to produce graduates who are able to manage assessment and evaluation programs at a high level in the organization or is the aim more towards practitioners who want to learn more about how they can evaluate their own practice? What content and curriculum characterize the program? How are for example the relations between courses in evaluation theory and methods and practical experience handled? Is the program given on line or on campus? |