introduction: in the design of educational programs, much attention has been paid to teaching methods, needs assessment, an important part of the development of educational programs, generally is neglected. another important aspect in educational program design is assessing effectiveness. the aims of this study were to design a formal needs assessment program to define the core contents of a fa...

Ameta-evaluation is an assessment of evaluation practices.Meta-evaluations include assessments of validity and usefulness of two or more studies that focus on the same issues. Every performance audit is grounded explicitly or implicitly in one or more theories of program evaluation. A deep understanding of alternative theories of program evaluation is helpful to gain clarity about sound auditin...

evaluator in this chapter provides a realistic account of the actions he would take to provide external evaluation services using the program theory– driven evaluation science approach. Program theory–driven evaluation science uses substantive knowledge, as opposed to method proclivities, to guide program evaluations (Donaldson and Lipsey, forthcoming). It aspires to update, clarify, simplify, ...

Dear Editor Program directors need to evaluate educationalprograms to ensure their quality (1). The resultsof a survey conducted in Tehran University ofMedical Sciences (TUMS) in early 2012 showedthat program evaluation was not an establishedprocess in the majority of schools. It was at besta stand-alone project focusing on a single courseor a particular component of it with no structuredfollow...

BACKGROUND Evaluation is a fundamental component in building quality primary care and is ideally situated to support individual, team and organizational learning by offering an accessible form of participatory inquiry. The evaluation literature has begun to recognize the unique features of KT evaluations and has described attributes to consider when evaluating KT activities. While both discipli...

This article is intended to stimulate a dialogue between program theory evaluation and action science for the purposes of cross-fertilization and mutual enrichment. Both program theory evaluation and action science use the concept of implicit “theories of action” as a central construct in the study of social practice. However, an action science approach suggests a wider understanding of program...

This article describes process evaluation methods for the Pool Cool diffusion trial across 4 years. Pool Cool is a skin cancer prevention program that was found to improve behaviors and environments for sun protection at swimming pools in a randomized efficacy trial, which was followed by a national diffusion trial. The process evaluation focus shifted from measuring program satisfaction to ass...

Introduction: This paper details an evaluation of the implementation and feasibility of a multilevel project entitled Kin KeeperSM Cancer Prevention Intervention that utilizes community health workers (CHWs) to deliver breast and cervical cancer education. The evaluation includes intervention fidelity, participant satisfaction, participant retention, and the cost of program implementa...