The first in a new series of lunchtime dialogues on The Dynamics of Evaluation
Evaluation as reflective practice – 20th May 2015
Camilla Child and Dione Hills
A Podcast of this talk is now available.
Update: You can also watch a recording of ‘Evaluation as reflective practice’ a live open class that took place recently as part of the Tavistock Chair in Social Science for Education and Change Tavistock Chair at the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR).
This lunchtime event is the first of four dialogues in the Dynamics of Evaluation series, contributing to our celebration of 2015 International Year of Evaluation. In this series, we invite participants to work with us on thinking about the challenges of either undertaking an evaluation, or being evaluated, in terms of ‘keeping a clear head’ when gathering and interpreting data, drawing conclusions and presenting – or responding to – evaluation results. Outcomes from these events will be shared on our website, and will also contribute to the design of a future professional development offer for evaluators on the ‘Dynamics of Evaluation’.
The series of dialogues begins with a session on the topic of ‘evaluation as reflective practice’. Two short presentations (one from a consultant, and one from an evaluator) will start the event. One, from Camilla Child will provide a short introduction to reflective practice, on what constitutes the effective ‘use of self’ (using our own experiences) as data in consulting and research practice, and how this can contribute to the support of learning in organisations and programmes. Dione Hills will then provide some observation on the role of reflective practice when undertaking an evaluation, and on how the concept of ‘the reflective practitioner’ fits in with emerging trends in the ‘professionalisation’ of evaluation. Following this, there will be an experiential opportunity for us to explore together the meaning of these ideas in day to day practice, and to reflect on their implications for us when we are either in the role of evaluators, or as a ‘recipient’ of evaluation activities.
Camilla Child is a Principal Consultant/ Researcher at the Tavistock Institute. Camilla has been involved in consultancy, coaching, training and evaluation at the TIHR since 1992. Her consultancy practice includes working closely with clients to support learning and deliver change by developing and supporting reflective spaces in which new routines and behaviours can be explored. Her main areas of expertise include the organisation and management of cross boundary and multi-disciplinary working; understanding organisational design and the impact this has on delivery and service users. She is also part of the team that delivers the Tavistock Institute’s Practitioner Certificate in Consulting and Change (PC3) course.
Dione Hills is a Principal Consultant/ Researcher at the Tavistock Institute. Dione has been involved in the developing and implementing innovative evaluation designs at TIHR since 1986. In addition to leading evaluation teams in evaluations across a range of sectors (public health, community development, transport, the environment) she has also written a number of papers on evaluation theory, and regularly delivers evaluation training, most recently to policy makers and analysts in the civil service. She is leading the team developing a professional development offer on ‘the dynamics of evaluation’ and is part of a UK Evaluation society team piloting a new Voluntary Evaluator Peer Review System (VEPR) using the principles of reflective practice.
All events take place @ The Tavistock Institute, Wednesdays, 12.30 – 14.30pm
Bring your lunch and your expertise with you – hot/cold drinks will be provided. Contact talks@tavinstitute.org if you would like further details of each talk and/or you plan to attend.
Download a flyer detailing the Dynamics of Evaluation series.