Emphasizing Evaluative Criteria for More Focused, Inclusive Evaluations
A group of staff brainstorms a plan around a table, organizing post-its on a cork board.
In our last post on evaluating makerspaces and fab labs, we introduced the topic of “evaluative criteria.” In this post, we’ll take a closer look at how to approach the development of your own criteria.
What are they?
Evaluative criteria are areas of focus that inform the development of evaluation questions. In our previous post, we referenced literature that sought to identify evaluative criteria for library-based makerspaces. Some of the evaluative criteria outlined in this research included things like attendance, learning progress, interest, and mastery of skills.
Building on this idea, how might you define your evaluative criteria? There are a number of sources that can help with this process. Criteria may be drawn from individual perspectives of staff and program participants, literature reviews, previous evaluations, professional experience, your definition of success for your program or space, or from defined organizational objectives (among others).
How might you use evaluative criteria to add focus to your work?
Defining evaluative criteria at the beginning of an evaluation cycle is paramount. This step is often neglected as plans for an evaluation are developed because it is typically easier to think about specific questions you want to answer (which include evaluative criteria) without first assessing which evaluative criteria embody your particular focus.
For example, let’s say you run an engineering camp at a science center. Maybe you wish to know what impacts your camp is having on participants. You start designing your evaluation questions and come up with two that will guide your work; “Are they learning something new?” and “Do they change their opinions about who can be engineers?” Here, your evaluative criteria would be outcomes-based and focused on learning and attitudes about who can be engineers.
If you started by first asking “What do we need to focus on?” or “How would I determine that the camp is successful?” you might end up with different questions.
The following table is a list of categories identified by Teasdale (2023) into which evaluative criteria may fall:
Table of evaluative criteria categories. Credit: Teasdale et al., 2023, p. 33.
It may be a helpful exercise to consult the list above to begin developing your evaluative criteria for your programs before drafting your evaluation questions.
It’s also important to note that different people will have different values, biases, and interests in the evaluation, leading to differing priorities in evaluative criteria. Therefore, it is critical to recognize this subjectivity and negotiate different interests to find those most aligned with your goals and needs.
By being thoughtful about evaluative criteria before designing your evaluation questions, you can be sure to approach your evaluations with more inclusive and focused intentions and results.
References:
Teasdale, R. M., Pitts, R. T., Gates, E. F., & Shim, C. (2023). Teaching specification of evaluative criteria: A guide for evaluation education. New Directions for Evaluation, 2023 (177), 31-37. https://doi.org/10.1002/ev.20546
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