Σύγκριση μεθόδων

	Developmental Evaluation	Theory of Change Evaluation
Πεδίο	Public Policy	Public Policy
Οικογένεια	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Έτος προέλευσης	2011	1995
Δημιουργός	Michael Quinn Patton	Carol Weiss; Connell & Kubisch; Funnell & Rogers
Τύπος	Complexity-informed evaluation approach for innovation	Theory-based program evaluation framework
Θεμελιώδης πηγή	Patton, M. Q. (2011). Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use. New York: Guilford Press. ISBN: 9781606238721	Weiss, C. H. (1995). Nothing as practical as good theory: Exploring theory-based evaluation for comprehensive community initiatives for children and families. In J. P. Connell, A. C. Kubisch, L. B. Schorr, & C. H. Weiss (Eds.), New Approaches to Evaluating Community Initiatives: Concepts, Methods, and Contexts (pp. 65–92). Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute. ISBN: 9780898431674
Εναλλακτικές ονομασίες	DE, Patton Developmental Evaluation, Complexity-Informed Evaluation	Theory-Based Evaluation, ToC Evaluation, Theory-of-Change Approach, Outcomes Pathway Evaluation
Συναφείς	4	3
Σύνοψη	Developmental evaluation is an approach designed to support innovation and adaptation in complex, dynamic environments where the intervention itself is still emerging. Articulated by Michael Quinn Patton in his 2011 book, it abandons the assumption of a fixed, pre-specified model to be tested, and instead embeds an evaluator within the design team to provide real-time feedback that informs ongoing development. Its purpose is development — helping social innovators learn, adapt and respond as conditions change — rather than the improvement of a settled program (formative) or the judgement of a completed one (summative).	Theory of change evaluation is a theory-based approach that evaluates a program against an explicit map of how and why it is expected to produce its intended outcomes. Rooted in Carol Weiss's work on theory-based evaluation and the Aspen Institute's community-initiatives projects of the 1990s, it requires evaluators to articulate the full causal pathway from activities through short- and intermediate-term outcomes to a long-term goal, make the underlying assumptions explicit, and then collect evidence to test whether each link in that chain holds in practice. The theory of change serves simultaneously as a planning tool and as the framework against which the program's progress and plausibility are judged.