Journal Articles

Evaluation Systems: What Are They and Why Study Them?

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Increasingly, in the world of evaluation, `systems of evaluation' have been developed.This article outlines four criteria that help characterize such systems. One criterion is the existence of a distinctive epistemological perspective; another is that, in order to be labelled a system, evaluation activities are carried out by evaluators within organizational structures and institutions and not only (or largely) by `lonely' or sole-trader evaluators. Permanence is the third criterion and the fourth is that there is a focus on the intended use of results of evaluations. Examples of systems are the performance-monitoring system, the `experimentalist' system and the evaluation-accreditation system. Several problematic aspects of these systems are described, making it relevant to study them. One of these is the danger that evaluation systems breed (new) evaluation systems.Another problem is that these systems may produce largely routinized information relevant for day-to-day practices and single-loop learning processes, but which is of little relevance for fundamental reassessments of policies and programmes.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Evaluation

Call Number

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Publisher

California : Sage Publishing., 2008

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

1356-3890

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Vol. 14, No. 2, April 2008. Page 157-169

Subject(s)

accreditation and evaluation
evaluation approach
experiments
inspection
institutionalization of evaluation
system of evaluation
Evaluation Systems

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