Program Evaluation Interview Questions (Evaltalk)

At 1:36 PM -0400 13/10/04, Jill Ibell wrote:

>>Please let me know specific interview questions that you have found >>helpful in prior program evaluations. The use is for an internal >>program evaluation process, which has recently been started on a >>more formal basis than prior years trouble shooting operations.

Here's my generic, use anywhere, run out of ideas evaluation questions. They are based on Vygotskyian learning theory and action research practice.

these are my standby, run out of bright ideas, interview questions that have never failed to get some interesting and valuable responses. I've tried to turn them into something that relates to what you are interested in, but you get the general drift :-

• What generalisations would you make about the program?
• What exceptions to these generalisations are there?
• How do you explain these exceptions?
• What data do you have to support that explanation?
• What contradictions are there in the program?
• Put it in terms of "one the one hand ... on the other". How do you explain what enables both these features to exist at the same time?
• What data do you have to support that explanation ?
• Given your understanding of the program, what you would have expected to see or happen but were missing ?
• How do you explain this?
• What data do you have to support that explanation?
• Given your understanding of the program, what did you see or happen but you expected to be absent ?
• How do you explain this ?
• What data do you have to support that explanation ?
• What features of the relationship are a puzzle to you ?
• What would you have to do in order to understand or resolve this puzzle ?

As I get older I half begin to think that these may be the only questions you need to ask. In my experience, the responses are incredibly rich and insightful about people's judgement of worth, and it forces them to base their responses on observable or justifiable data.

Cheers

Bob

BOB WILLIAMS bobwill@actrix.co.nz Check out the free resources on my WEB site http://users.actrix.co.nz/bobwill

Mobile (64) 21 254 8983

... there are always exceptions. Reality is too complex to be captured by theory. I'm reminded of the general semantics principle that "the map is not the territory"-that a theory is distinct from the reality it purports to represent. Bob Dick

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