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Full-Text Articles in Social Work
Goal-Free Evaluation: A Potential Model For The Evaluation Of Social Work Programs, Brandon Youker
Goal-Free Evaluation: A Potential Model For The Evaluation Of Social Work Programs, Brandon Youker
Brandon W. Youker Ph.D
Goal-free evaluation (GFE) is an evaluation model where the evaluator is deliberately kept from the stated (or implied) goals and objectives of the program; this is accomplished by appointing a screener to keep goal-related information from the goal-free evaluator. Screening the evaluator from program goals is designed to control bias inherent in goal-based evaluation (GBE), a bias that contaminates the evaluator’s ability to see the program’s true outcomes and true merit. Although GFE has been around for more than half a century, GBE continues to dominate evaluation practice and the literature on GFE remains sparse and highly theoretical. This article …
The Abcs Of Gfe, Brandon Youker
The Abcs Of Gfe, Brandon Youker
Brandon W. Youker Ph.D
Goal-free evaluation (GFE) is the process of determining something’s merit intentionally without reference to its stated goals and objectives. The following PowerPoint presentation describes GFE and discusses preliminary attempts at operationalization. The video concludes with a lively discussion where audience members challenge Dr. Youker on GFE's feasibility and merit. . *This presentation is available at The Evaluation Center's website archived as an Evaluation Café presentation: http://www.wmich.edu/evalctr/2012/11/goal-free-evaluation-an-analog-experiment-comparing-goal-free-evaluation-and-goal-based-evalation-utility/
Consequence Of Competing And Complementary Evaluation Approaches: A Case Study., Brandon Youker, Chris Coryn, Daniela Schröter, Michelle Bakerson
Consequence Of Competing And Complementary Evaluation Approaches: A Case Study., Brandon Youker, Chris Coryn, Daniela Schröter, Michelle Bakerson
Brandon W. Youker Ph.D
A poster presentation demonstrating an evaluation of a summer school program for middle schoolers in which the evaluators divided into two teams and simultaneously evaluated the program. The first team examined the students' performance according to the program's ability to achieve stated goals while the second team intentionally avoided any knowledge of or reference to the stated goals and objectives throughout the entire evaluation. The two teams wrote separate reports and then a combined report.
Values And Goal-Free Evaluation: A Case Study, Brandon Youker
Values And Goal-Free Evaluation: A Case Study, Brandon Youker
Brandon W. Youker Ph.D
How does a goal-free evaluator deal with values? Which values? Whose values? This presentation argues that the goal-free evaluator takes a consumerist perspective. Thus the evaluator's values are in serving the program's consumers and satisfying the consumers' needs.
Ethnography And Evaluation: Their Relationship And Three Anthropological Models Of Evaluation, Brandon W. Youker Ph.D
Ethnography And Evaluation: Their Relationship And Three Anthropological Models Of Evaluation, Brandon W. Youker Ph.D
Brandon W. Youker Ph.D
This paper examines the relationship between ethnographic research methods and evaluation theory and methodology. It is divided into two main sections: (a) ethnography in evaluation and (b) anthropological models of evaluation. Three levels of the leading anthropological models of evaluation are summarized, which include responsive evaluation, goal-free evaluation, and constructivist evaluation. In conclusion, (a) there is no consensual definition of ethnography; (b) in many circumstances, ethnographic evaluation models may be beneficial; and (c) ethnography can be used in evaluation but requires a high level of analysis to transform ethnographic data into useful information for eliciting an evaluative conclusion.