Evaluation Of Development Programs Research Articles

Change Detection of Vegetative Covers in Kalara Nala Watershed of Damoh District Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Remote sensing and GIS technologies have proven to be effective tools to analyse land use land cover (LULC) changes on watershed basis. The evaluation and monitoring of watershed development programmes are of prime importance to assess the conservation of natural resources and the efficiency of their utilization. The investigation aims to detect changes in vegetative cover due to water harvesting and recharging structures of the study watershed situated in Patharia block of Damoh district, Madhya Pradesh. The watershed development programme was executed during the period 2018-2022. All the processes related to the evaluation of watershed development activities were performed using remote sensing and GIS tools through pre and post development data in the GIS environment. The change detection in vegetative cover was done based on land use land cover patterns. By adopting unsupervised classification approach, high-resolution satellite data of Sentinel-2B for the years 2018 and 2022 were used for land use land cover (LULC) mapping and further analysis. During the year 2018, it was observed that the vegetative cover in the watershed was 37% of the watershed area however after the implementation of the watershed development programme total vegetative cover increased to 60% of the total watershed area in the year 2022. From the study, it can be concluded that remote sensing and GIS can prove to be viable tool for the evaluation of watershed development programmes.

Teacher Management Development: A Multi-site Study at SMK Negeri 2 and SMK Negeri 4 Banjarmasin

The role of the teacher in developing students' skills in accordance with the requirements of the industrial revolution era 4.0 and the era of society 5.0 is to construct and develop learning experiences for students and encourage them to have higher-order thinking skills and be more creative. Teachers who are professional and receptive to technology and attempts to prepare vocational graduates who are competent for changes in the revolutionary era and who also meet the needs of the commercial and industrial communities. Thus, this present research focused on (1) teacher development management which includes school program planning on teacher competence, implementation of development activities, and evaluation of development activities and programs and (2) the determinants of success and obstacles in realizing the goals of teacher development management. This study used a qualitative approach using interview, observation, and documentation techniques. The data was collected through various techniques such as data reduction, data presentation, and data verification. Checking the validity of the data was done by using credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. Then, the data were analyzed by single case analysis and cross-site analysis. The results of the research showed that teacher development planning at SMK Negeri 2 Banjarmasin involves formulating objectives, organizing meeting activities, preparing upskilling and reskilling programs. Implementation incorporating both on-the-job and off-the-job training activities. Evaluate teacher development by assessing its methods, impacts, and programs. The challenges faced by SMK Negeri 2 Banjarmasin include discipline, teacher indifference, and a large number of instructors who do not participate in on-the-job training activities. Exemplary performance, motivation, reward and punishment are the success factors. Technology-based infrastructure availability. At SMK Negeri 4 Banjarmasin with planning, namely objective formulation, requirements analysis, team development, and data collection. Activities associated with qualification, training, and learning development program implementation. Evaluation consists of response/reaction, outcomes, and learning. There was no validation of the assessment of the teacher's grasp of the development program, which posed a challenge. Existence of government support and school policies to optimize development program activities is a success factor.

Individual interviews versus focus groups for evaluations of international development programs: Systematic testing of method performance to elicit sensitive information in a justice study in Haiti

Focus group discussions (FGDs) and individual interviews (IIs) with community members are common methods used in evaluations of all kinds of projects, including those in international development. As resources are often limited, evaluators must carefully choose methods that yield the best information for their particular program. A concern with FGDs and IIs is how well they elicit information on potentially sensitive topics; very little is known about differences in disclosure by methodology in the domain of justice. Using FGDs (n = 16) and IIs (n = 46) from a USAID project in Haiti, we systematically coded responses based on a shared elicitation guide around access to and engagement with the formal and informal justice systems and performed thematic and statistical comparisons across the two methods. We introduce the continuous thought as the novel standard unit for statistical comparison. Participants in IIs were statistically more likely to provide themes relevant to genderbased violence. Importantly, sensitive themes extracted in IIs (e.g., related to sexual violence, economic dimensions, and restorative justice) did not emerge in FGDs. Given these results and other limitations to the FGD, prioritizing interviews over focus group modalities may be appropriate to guide targeted, effective programming on justice or other socially sensitive topics.

Beyond the Buzzword: A Framework for an Indigenous Relational Evaluation in Traditional Communities in Ghana

The notions of indigenous knowledge and cultural philosophies are becoming ubiquitous in many social inquiries, and evaluation is no exception. Nonetheless, the pursuit to embed relevant indigenous philosophies in contemporary evaluation has yet to succeed. In this article, we discuss indigenous relational philosophies, approaches, and practices as they relate to evaluation. Using qualitative research approaches, we interviewed 43 Indigenous development leaders and other local representatives in three local government areas in Ghana. Utilizing evidence synthesis approaches through a triangulation process, we conclude that indigenous knowledge and other cultural ethos were distinct in community-based development evaluation processes. There was an elusive intersection between indigenous and contemporary evaluation paradigms. Indigenous evaluation has principles such as community spirit, mutual trust, self-organization, relational patterns or networks, “ubuntu” ideals, consensus building, and collective action that can complement contemporary evaluation for the effective and efficient evaluation of community development programs and social policies. We identify key indigenous elements and other indigenous relational assessment patterns to aid in the design of an indigenously driven relational evaluation framework. The evaluative competencies embedded in indigenous philosophies are vast, thus, a call for future research is proposed.

Evaluation of Professional Development Programmes for Art Teachers in Kwahu-South District Senior High Schools in Ghana

The present study aimed to identify and describe the Professional Development Programmes available for Art Teachers in the Kwahu-South District Senior High Schools and to evaluate how authorities in the Kwahu-South District, organize Professional Development Programmes for Art teachers in the Senior High Schools. Qualitative and evaluation research designs were used. The population for the study consisted of 260 teachers at Kwahu-South District Senior High Schools. The population consisted of Heads of these schools, the Art and Culture Coordinator and the Human Resource Manager (HRM) at the Kwahu-South District education office. Out of the 260 population, only 32 were sampled for this study. Interviews, document analysis and focus group discussion were the instruments used in collecting the data. At the end of the study, it was realized that further studies, workshops, conferences and in-service training are the most common form of Professional Development Programmes that are available to teachers. The other Professional Development Programmes such as coaching, symposium, job rotation and seminar were the least and less attended programmes mentioned among the teachers. Therefore, it is recommended that the government and education stakeholders reconsider PD programmes in their action plans.

Reaching Consensus on the Design of an Online Health Professions Education Faculty Development Course for Sub-Saharan Africa

Faculty development practitioners should be encouraged to create a sustainable and accessible environment for capacity building in health professions education (HPE). Nine experts in the sub-Saharan African region followed two rounds of a modified Delphi process to achieve consensus on the components of an online health professions education faculty development programme. As a result, four components to consider in the development, implementation and evaluation of online faculty development programmes were identified: environmental, curricular, activities and research. These components support further research into developing a contextually relevant and sustainable online health professions education faculty development model in the region.

The evaluation of health care leadership development programmes: a scoping review of reviews

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report a scoping review of reviews which investigated HLDP evaluations to determine: how the conceptualisation of leadership development programmes (HLDPs), and despite growing calls for robust evaluations of their pedagogic design, delivery and effectiveness, there are concerns regarding the quality of data associated with their evaluation. This scoping review of reviews investigated the reporting of HLDP evaluations to determine: how the conceptualisation of leadership underpinning HLDPs influence their evaluation; how the pedagogical approaches within HLDPs influence their evaluation; and the evaluation designs and measures used to assess HLDPs.Design/methodology/approachThe scoping review was conducted on reviews of HLDPs. Searches were performed on four databases and on the grey literature. Data were extracted and a narrative synthesis was developed.FindingsThirty-one papers were included in the scoping review of reviews. A great deal of heterogeneity in HLDPs was identified. Evaluations of HLDPs were affected by poor data quality, and there were limitations in the evidence about “what works”. Leadership was conceptualised in different ways across HLDPs, and consequently, there was a lack of consistency as to what is being evaluated and the methods used to assess HLDPs.Originality/valueThis review of reviews summarises the current evidence on the evaluation of HLDPs. Evaluations of HLDPs need to explicitly account for the complexity of health systems, how this complexity impacts on the development and articulation of leadership practice, and how the underlying conceptualisation of leadership and the associated theory of change articulate a set of assumptions about how HLDPs support leaders to affect change within complex systems.

The Impact of an Instructional Development Program on College of Agriculture Faculty Members’ Teaching-focused Social Capital: A Mixed Methods Approach

The social aspect of faculty instructional development programs is increasingly recognized because the programs' impact is greatly influenced by social interactions among faculty participants. These interactions allow faculty members to reflect on and improve their teaching practices. Although the literature has shown that effective instructional development programs help develop faculty’s educational knowledge, attitudes, and teaching practices, little research has investigated how instructional development programs help faculty develop their teaching-focused social capital. To address this knowledge gap, this study examined the impact of an instructional development program, Teacher’s College, on faculty participants’ teaching-focused social capital development. The findings from the mixed-methods study indicated that Teacher’s College positively affected faculty participants’ teaching-focused social capital by promoting connections with individuals across the college and providing a supportive learning community. This study also found that online and socially distant meetings due to the pandemic and geographic distances diminished faculty participants’ opportunities to develop their social network and social capital. Based on the findings, we propose recommendations for Teacher’s College and future research in the evaluation of faculty instructional development programs.

변화이론의 개념과 개발협력 적용에 대한 비판적 소고

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to critically examine the Theory of Change (ToC)’s strengths and weaknesses of the concept and its application, which has recently been actively applied by multilateral and bilateral organizations, civil society, and various foundations in Korea. The article is to provide epistemological, conceptual, and methodological implications for the development of cooperation policies and practices.
 Originality: This study has significance in comprehensively examining the concept and problems of this approach, going beyond the growing interest in change theory, which has recently received a lot of attention from domestic development cooperation agencies and evaluation practitioners in Korea. In particular, it is intended to provide a thorough academic and methodological review at the initial stage of institutionalization so that the tools of development cooperation strategy and program establishment and evaluation developed in the West are not applied uncritically to domestic and international projects of Korea.
 Methodology: This paper first examines the social constructivist position of change theory compared to positivist and interpretative/transformative evaluation methods in various evaluation paradigms and flows. Recent confusions and challenges to the theory of change expressed in the literature and seminars collected over 12 months and the five related methodological workshops were identified based on (i) Program Theory, (ii) Research Methods, (i) Vision of Development Cooperation Activities The analysis was divided into epistemology and value.
 Result: The theory of change, which has been actively applied in the UK and the United States has not only been applied to development cooperation evaluation, but has been widely used in education, health, social protection, water and sanitation, community development and environment. This study found that first, in regards to program theory, ToC clearly is a bridge that can most effectively materialize when clarifiers context, and assumption in discussing how to induce intended change in a program theory. Second, in the methodological aspect, ToC was the most instrumental in program-level interventions, thematic and cluster strategy development, and evaluation, rather than a small-scale project type evaluation. There were a series of challenges found such as a lack of clear and technically poor logic that occurs when expert verification is absent, the qualitative difference in the composition of the theory of change according to the beliefs and capabilities of the facilitator, and the limitations of persuading donors compared to evaluation based on rigors empirical analysis. Third, in terms of epistemological perspectives on the evaluation, the theory of change is not simply expanded in order to replace PDM in Korea but is used to comprehensively visualized to promote social change and social change in regards to results, context, and pathways of social change. Based on the value and belief that it can be used as a tool and approach for innovation in development cooperation, ToC in Korea has numerous potentials for serving its purpose in both public and non-profit fields.
 Conclusions and Implication: ToC as the 'Big T' and 'Small T' approach suggested in this paper offers various conceptual and practical strengths to be applied to the policies, strategies, guidelines, and methodologies as new development cooperation for Korea’s international development. In order for the ToC approach to be applied in Korea's development cooperation as a new approach and method, active conceptual and methodological discussion in a critical manner is needed at the beginning of such adaptation. It is hoped that this approach will not be institutionalized in a hurry by limiting it to new tools.

Do students perceive faculty as responsible for equitable learning environments? Results from a mixed-methods study

ABSTRACT Despite having expertise, student voices have typically been left out of faculty professional development literature. The purpose of this study was to center college student voices around perceptions of equitable learning environments for use in faculty professional development programs. Using a mixed-methodology, student-driven approach, the current study examined students’ perceptions of college instructors' responsibilities to implement equitable classroom practices to more deeply inform faculty development programming on equity. Student responses were also compared to faculty perceptions. Participants were 66 undergraduates and 141 faculty from a comprehensive state university. Both students and faculty completed a survey assessing instructor responsibilities to implement highly equitable classroom practices, while students additionally completed open-ended questions about instructor responsibilities. Results revealed students and faculty had similar perceptions and both endorsed the importance of equitable classroom practices. Using content analysis to generate themes, students identified instructor responsibilities to promote learning environments that are: (1) caring and supportive, (2) safe and equitable, (3) individualized, (4) student-centered, and (5) active and collaborative. Overall, these themes shared considerable overlap with survey results measuring equitable classroom practices. The findings support efforts to include both student and faculty perceptions in the design, curricula, and evaluation of equity-based faculty professional development programs.

Evaluation through narratives: A practical case of Participatory Narrative Inquiry in women empowerment evaluation in Niger

This study explores the use of Participatory Narrative Inquiry (PNI) in evaluating development interventions by contributing to the debate of using participatory narrative methods. Stories on personal experience are used to evaluate the project’s effects as with similar methods such as Most Significant Change and Sensemaking. To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the early applications of PNI to the evaluation of international development programmes. The study discusses advantages and limitations, and provides a scholarly reflection based on an application of PNI in the evaluation of gender and women’s empowerment in Niger. The study concludes that PNI is a powerful alternative to existing qualitative and participatory narrative evaluation methods. Within mixed-method approaches, PNI allows for greater inclusion of project beneficiaries in the evaluation process, while helping to elaborate a thorough theory of change, understand the complexity of the context, identify and assess outcome pathways, and provide an evidence-based evaluation.

Lessons learned for public health workforce development: An evaluation of the centers for disease control and prevention’s laboratory leadership service fellowship

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Laboratory Leadership Service (LLS) Fellowship Program in July 2015 to develop public health laboratory (PHL) leaders who will improve PHL quality and safety. This article describes a retrospective, summative evaluation to determine the extent to which LLS has met its short-term goals for PHL workforce development. The evaluation relied on existing data from routine LLS data collection and reporting, supplemented with a new alumni survey. The purpose of the design was threefold: 1) to reduce data collection burden on program staff and participants, 2) to assess the value and limits of routine fellowship data for comprehensive public health workforce development program evaluation, and 3) to identify ways to improve LLS’s routine data collections for program evaluation. We used descriptive statistics, qualitative analysis, and participatory methods (i.e., a data party) to analyze and interpret data. Results show LLS short-term outcome achievement and highlight opportunities for program improvement, particularly related to the design of certain training requirements and for future evaluations. Overall, the evaluation contributes to lessons learned for PHL workforce development efforts, including how routine data collections can contribute to comprehensive public health workforce development evaluations.

Process Evaluations of Positive Youth Development Programmes for Disadvantaged Young People: A Systematic Review

This systematic review identified 10 process evaluation studies of positive youth development (PYD) programmes for disadvantaged young people, and aimed to assess the quality of reporting, methods used, and barriers and enablers to delivering programmes as intended. Four databases were searched: Web of Science, Psych INFO, Scopus, and Embase. Results indicated the methods used and quality of the process evaluations were highly varied. Numerous barriers (sessions feeling too much like school, lack of behaviour management skills, lack of funding, and logistical challenges) and enablers (collaboration with the local community, meeting young people’s needs, and communication) to delivering programmes as intended were identified. There is a clear need for improvement in design and reporting of process evaluations (e.g., more mixed method design of process evaluations, information on staff training, authors’ philosophical standpoint) in studies of PYD programmes for disadvantaged young people alongside a greater awareness of barriers and enablers to programme delivery. Doing so will enable programme outcomes to be appropriately attributed to what is actually delivered and generate more holistic understanding of the extent and reasons that programmes are delivered as intended. This will support more effective programme design, implementation, and sustainability of future PYD programmes for disadvantaged young people.

Pelatihan dan Pendampingan Aparat Desa untuk Persiapan Desa Mandiri Informasi

The achievement of SDGs at the village level always involves information management to optimize planning, implementation, coordination, and evaluation of development programs. Information management requires knowledge and skill to sue the information technology services that are now widely available, unfortunately, village governments often have limitations in human resources capabilities, so they must depend on other elements (government, academics, volunteers) to utilize information technology. This does not supposed to happen, because many information technology services are designed to be used with no technical skill to operate. In this community service, we give training and assistance about introduction and empowerment of village officials to the use of information technology services that are easy to use, so that they can produce villages that are independent in managing information, to support the development. The training and mentoring succeeded in making participants understand about internet services, and have the willingness to apply them in their work environment in the village.

A guide to best practice in faculty development for health professions schools: a qualitative analysis

BackgroundThis is a practice guide for the evaluation tool specifically created to objectively evaluate longitudinal faculty development programs (FDP) using the “5×2 -D backward planning faculty development model”. It was necessary to create this tool as existing evaluation methods are designed to evaluate linear faculty development models with a specific endpoint. This backward planning approach is a cyclical model without an endpoint, consisting of 5 dynamic steps that are flexible and interchangeable, therefore can be a base for an evaluation tool that is objective and takes into account all the domains of the FDP in contrast to the existing, traditional, linear evaluation tools which focus on individual aspects of the program. The developed tool will target evaluation of longitudinal faculty development programs regardless of how they were planned.MethodologyDeductive qualitative grounded theory approach was used. Evaluation questions were generated and tailored based on the 5 × 2-D model followed by 2 Delphi rounds to finalize them. Based on the finalized evaluation questions from the results of the Delphi rounds, two online focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted to deduce the indicators, data sources and data collection method.ResultsBased on the suggested additions, the authors added 1 new question to domains B, with a total of 42 modifications, such as wording changes or discarding or merging questions. Some domains received no comments, therefore, were not included in round 2. For each evaluation question, authors generated indicators, data sources and data collection methods during the FGD.ConclusionThe methodology used to develop this tool takes into account expert opinions. Comprehensiveness of this tool makes it an ideal evaluation tool during self-evaluation or external quality assurance for longitudinal FDP. After its validation and testing, this practice guide can be used worldwide, along with the provided indicators which can be quantified and used to suit the local context.

Using Theory-Based Evaluation to Evaluate Systemic Change in a Market Systems Programme in Nepal

The complexities of markets and market environments are felt in the design and the evaluation of market systems development (MSD) programmes. The authors reflect on a recent evaluation of an MSD programme in Nepal in which they used contribution analysis as a means of navigating these complexities. The planned niceties of the proposal soon departed ways from the reality on the ground, forcing the authors to adopt a more iterative evaluation approach, while ensuring evaluative robustness. This article outlines the iterative process and what the authors have learned regarding the applicability of contribution analysis within a theory-based evaluation, in a dynamic, changing environment.

CIPP vs kirkpatrick in the evaluation of physics teacher competency development programs: literature study

This study aims to systematically review and analyze the results of research on CIPP and kirkpatrick models in the evaluation of phisycs teacher competency development programs. This literature review is specifically intended to determine the advantages and disadvantages of both evaluation models in the implementation of program evaluation. The research method uses systematic studies through four stages, namely; identification, selection, feasibility and inclusion. Search articles using the Google Scholar, ERIC, Sciencedirect and SpringerLink databases. Based on the results of the study found 1115 research articles that discuss the use of CIPP and Kirkpatrick models in the evaluation of competency development programs. The articles are mostly published in the form of proceedings and international journals and research comes from several countries. The final results showed there were 18 studies discussing the use of CIPP and Kirkpatrick models to evaluate competency development and training programs. Recommendations of the results of the study, in order to be able to combine two models namely CIPP and Kirkpatrick as an alternative evaluation model, the goal is to get an overview of the results of the evaluation of phisycs teacher competency development programs more comprehensively especially in the program that contains training components.

Evaluation framework for urban development programs: the case of Morocco

The evaluation of urban development programs is now a prerequisite for any initiative to improve their effectiveness. The United Nations has designated 2015 as the International Year of Evaluation (EvalYear). This global initiative aims to support the development of an enabling environment for evaluation at international, national, and local levels (UN, 2015). In Morocco, the situation is still characterized by a weak anchoring of the evaluation function in the political-institutional landscape, except for a few sectoral mechanisms for collecting information and drawing up diagnoses. However, there is a real awareness of this, as the new Constitution of 2011 addresses this deficit and highlights the importance of evaluation in the management of public affairs. In this context, the Moroccan Ministry of Housing has initiated several evaluation studies on specific programs. Accordingly, we will analyze three evaluation studies of urban development projects. The objective of our work is to verify to what extent the modeling of the program evaluation process, developed by Hurteau and Houle (2006), was applied to the evaluation reports analyzed and to issue a well-founded judgment. To do this, we translated the steps of modeling the evaluation process into indicators to create an analysis grid. However, our study may have a limitation in that while the reports analyzed have the advantage of being almost uniform in terms of content, this choice is biased because it does not provide an exhaustive representation of evaluation practice. Finally, the results of our study show that the practice of modeling the evaluation process is not uniform and that it would be important to develop and frame the practice of program evaluation.

Working with assumptions in international development program evaluation

Working with assumptions in international development program evaluation

Continuing Professional Development: Understanding the Perceptions of Higher Institution Lecturers in Anambra State, Nigeria

This paper, which drew on quantitative and qualitative data, was mainly aimed at examining the perceptions of higher institution lecturers in Nigeria concerning the effectiveness, facilitators, and inhibitors of CPD activities provided by their higher institutions and/or the Ministry of Education. The researchers employed and adapted the data collection instrument by Sywelem & Witte (2013) designed to collect data on perceptions of teachers regarding professional development opportunities and activities that exist in Saudi schools. The interview questions were designed by the researchers to access lecturers’ evaluation of the professional development programs and activities in their institutions. Research survey was sent to lecturers in 3 representative higher institution in Anambra state, 213 survey responses and 15 interviews were received and analyzed. Results showed that the participants did recognize the importance and usefulness of CPD activities and expressed how CPD activities has impacted them as professionals. Lecturers expressed their expectations with regards to program content, time management, financial and moral sponsorship and support, etc. It was recommended that for lecturers to be effective at their jobs in the higher institution system, their professional development and in-service training programs must be given good attention by the management. Keywords: Lecturers’ perception, Continuing Professional Development, In-service training, Nigerian higher institutions. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-20-05 Publication date: July 31 st 2021