Cognitive complexity of evaluator competencies.

A critical aspect of evaluator education and professional learning is to educate evaluators who know the major evaluation models and learn how to manage relationships and solve complex problems when conducting, critiquing, developing and interpreting evaluations. The American and Australian Evaluation Associations have specified desired evaluator competencies, although developing a core curriculum for evaluation still seems elusive. It is suggested that these various competencies can be considered in terms of their levels of cognitive complexity. A model of cognitive complexity is utilised to explore the tasks and thinking of evaluators, leading to an important distinction between 'knowing that' and 'knowing how' in relation to evaluation tasks. As an illustration of this posited relationship, the Australian 'Evaluators Professional Learning Competencies' were coded according to their cognitive complexity. Two-thirds of these competencies were classed as 'knowing that' or surface thinking, and one third were classified as 'knowing how' or deeper thinking. A taxonomy is offered as a method to understand models of learning necessary for evaluator education and training, as well as for further development of professional evaluator competencies.

The current state of evaluator education: A situation analysis and call to action.

Education is critically important for the maintenance and growth of programme evaluation and its emergence as a profession. This position paper presents evaluator education as an initiative and provides a foundation for its evaluation. In it, the authors use Stufflebeam's Context, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) model to frame a review of the literature and practice. We follow this analysis of the current state of evaluator education in formal settings, with discussion of its implications, and directions for future research and action. Our analysis suggests that there is much work to be done to understand the needs for evaluator education, to delineate standards for quality in both education and practice, to identify the inputs and processes most effective for addressing those needs, and to document its ultimate impacts. The paper provides a call to action for improving the quality, consistency, and integrity of this important work.