Trends in Evaluation Vocabulary
Trends in Evaluation Vocabulary
(Trends in Evaluation Vocabulary)
Assignment trends in evaluation vocabulary
Background:
As evaluation has grown as a discipline over the past 50 years, scholars and practitioners from multiple disciplines have contributed to the vocabulary within the field. Consider the following example of the way one term, validity, has evolved within evaluation. In early publications from the 1960s, scholars suggested that validity of evaluation studies be based on the concept of validity as it is understood within experimental research. Validity is a core concept that forms the foundation of any basic understanding of research. Ernest House, an evaluation expert, challenged this definition and pushed for the reconceptualization of validity in evaluation research. He sought to broaden the concept to include issues of fairness, coherence, and justice as indicators of or threats to validity within evaluation. Although House argument may seem minor, it has contributed to a greater emphasis on the social justice aspect of evaluation. After all, many if not most programs that are evaluated have the aim of improving lives. Even if technical research specifications and ethical guidelines are followed, without scrutinizing program evaluation for fairness and a sense of justice to the purpose of the program and its recipients, validity may be lacking.
For this Assignment, you will explore glossaries of evaluation terminology and consider any trends that appear during your analysis.
To Prepare:
- Conduct an Internet search for glossaries on evaluation.
- As you locate vocabularies, taxonomies, and glossaries, take note of how they have changed or remained the same over the decades. Also, consider their breadth or depth, as well as specific instances of how terms are treated similarly or differently across them.
- Select 15 resources to use for this Assignment.
- You will need to create an annotated bibliography of these sources.
To Do:
- Create a chronological citation list of 15 resources you located.
- Use APA formatting and provide a hyperlink to each one.
- Annotate the list with your observations about how the glossaries are similar or different (around 150 words for each citation).
- Explain any trends that appeared during your research.
