Rethinking evaluation and redesigning evaluation practices. A case study with an experimental service for adolescents

Abstract

In light of the results of a case study conducted with an experimental service for adolescents as part of the PRIN [Research Project of National Interest] “La valutazione per il miglioramento dei servizi formativi. Una ricerca università-territorio per la costruzione partecipata di modelli innovativi di assessment” [“Evaluation for the improvement of educational services. A research involving universities and local communities in the participatory development of innovative assessment models”], the present article shows that educational models and practices of assessment co-exist alongside models and practices driven by other logics, discussing the resulting interaction and impact on outcomes. Far from supporting generalizations, these results inform reflection on issues that are crucial for the life of an educational setting: in particular the conditions required to combine institutional requirements to measure outcomes with the need to learn from experience, giving rise to intrinsically educational modes of evaluation. More specifically, it may be observed that evaluation, on the part of both external stakeholders and education professionals working in a service, is critically influenced by the
modes of communication and the documentation practices implemented in that specific setting, as well as by the service’s history and the phases that it goes through. For example, paradoxically, when a service faces the possibility that its
activity may be discontinued, as in the case of experimental services, this may stimulate reflective evaluation practices focused on exploring the meaning of the work being done and enhancing educational redesign competencies.