The purpose of this study was to determine professional evaluators' perceptions of reflective practice (RP) and the extent and manner in which they engage in RP behaviors. Nineteen evaluators with 10 or more years of experience in the evaluation field were interviewed to explore our understanding and practice of RP in evaluation. Findings suggest…

Anxiety is a multifaceted force that can negatively impact the ability of evaluators to succeed in practice. In the evaluation literature, discussions concerning anxiety have primarily been limited to strategies to reduce stakeholder anxiety to encourage positive and productive working relationships with evaluators. This study was among the first…

Psychological theory suggests that evaluators' individual values and traits play a fundamental role in evaluation practice, though few empirical studies have explored those constructs in evaluators. This paper describes an empirical study on evaluators' individual, work, and political values, as well as their personality traits to predict…

Factors influencing evaluation use has been a primary concern for evaluators. However, little is known about the current conceptualizations of evaluation use including what counts as use, what efforts encourage use, and how to measure use. This article identifies enablers and constraints to evaluation use based on a scoping review of literature…

In this study, we investigated the impact of the evaluation capacity building (ECB) efforts of an organization by examining the evaluation plans included in funding proposals over a 14-year period. Specifically, we sought to determine the degree to which and how evaluation plans in proposals to one National Science Foundation (NSF) program changed…

This article compares the purposes and content of the four foundational documents of the American Evaluation Association (AEA): the Program Evaluation Standards, the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation, the AEA Evaluator Competencies, and the AEA Guiding Principles. This reflection on alignment is an early effort in the third…

This study challenges persistent misrepresentations of evaluation as a value-neutral inquiry process by presenting an empirical study that deepens understanding of evaluators' values and how they "show up" in evaluation practice. Through semistructured interviews and inductive analysis, we examined the values advanced by a sample of…

The term "meta-evaluation"--referring to the "evaluation of evaluations"--has been in the evaluation lexicon for a half-century. Despite this longevity, research on meta-evaluation is sparse and even more so for internal formative types of meta-evaluation. This exploratory study builds on our understanding of meta-evaluative…

Evaluators are becoming increasingly aware that, to provide maximum benefit to the programs they evaluate, they must address the systems within which the programs work. However, evaluation practice is often influenced by beliefs and assumptions that are rooted in an understanding of these systems as stable and predictable. We identify four traps…

This article presents a new tool called Critical Evaluation Capital (CEC) designed to address issues of equity and social justice in program evaluation. CEC is grounded in the tenants of critical race theory and inspired by Yosso's work on community cultural wealth which raises critical issues of positionality and access. CEC is a system for…

This article is the fifth in a series on the relationship of evaluation theory and practice. It was commissioned by the Eastern Evaluation Research Society and the American Evaluation Association as part of The Chelimsky Forum, launched in 2013 to honor Eleanor Chelimsky, one of the most influential and respected program evaluators of our era, and…

Evaluation has been expanding as an important discipline in Latin America, yet there are significant challenges regarding capacity development through educational and training initiatives in the region. This paper first analyzes the evolution and state of the field in terms of the teaching of, and training in evaluation in Latin America, with a…

This article reports findings from a research program exploring the role of mediation in an "adaptive learning" process through study of developmental evaluation (DE). Our study focuses on how mediators might influence the relationships between components of a social learning system and the implications for adaptive learning.…

Pressure on evaluators has been investigated recently by surveys in the USA, the UK, Germany, and Switzerland. This study compares the results of those studies regarding pressure on evaluators in different countries. The findings suggest that independence of evaluations does not exist for many respondents. Moreover, the person who commissioned the…

George Grob presented the fifth and final Eleanor Chelimsky Forum address at the 2017 annual meeting of the Eastern Evaluation Research Society. In this commentary, I respond to several points that George raises in the "American Journal of Evaluation" paper based on that address. An overarching theme of my comments involves the potential…