Abstract
In this article we develop philosophically Cronbach's (1982) suggestion that the evaluator is an educator. The motivation for this article arose from problems encountered by us on a major evaluation project and from dissatisfaction with the existent philosophical underpinnings of evaluation theory. We propose, and provide a justification for, a model of evaluation based upon the notion of the evaluator as educator, which is sufficiently broad philosophically not only to subsume scientistic and humanistic models, but also to transcend them. Within this broad philosophical model we develop a particular theory of evaluation, based essentially upon Wittgenstein, and in which the notion of a learning community is taken as central. Finally we consider some practical implications of this theory of evaluation.
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Marshall, J., Peters, M. Evaluation and education: the ideal learning community. Policy Sci 18, 263–288 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138912
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138912