Developmental evaluation (DE) offers a powerful approach to monitoring and supporting social innovations by working in partnership with program decision makers. In this book, eminent authority Michael Quinn Patton shows how to conduct evaluations within a DE framework.
1. Developmental Evaluation Defined and Positioned*The Distinction Emerges*Facing Complexity and Facing Reality: Or, Facing the Realities of Complexity*Developmental Evaluation and Complexity Theory*Developmental Evaluation and Single-Loop versus Double-Loop Learning*The Importance of Interpretive Frameworks*Developmental Evaluation as Utilization-Focused*Charting the Developmental Journey: Overview of the Book*Five Developmental Evaluation Purposes and Uses2. Developmental Evaluation as a Distinct Purpose and Niche*Beyond Planning: Jumping into the Fire*Evaluation Questions under These Different Engagement Scenarios*Vision Encounters Reality: The Territory of Developmental Evaluation*Systems Issues: Boundary Management as a Developmental Evaluation Focus*Developing Innovations versus Improving and Testing Models: Developmental Evaluation Distinguished from Formative and Summative Evaluation*Ongoing Development Informed by Developmental Evaluation*Strategic Thinking and Developmental Evaluation*The Niche of Developmental Evaluation: Chapter Overview and Summary3. Thinking Outside Evaluation's Boxes*Creative Evaluation*Of Plums and Prunes*History and Biography as Context: The Personal Factor*More History and Biography as Context*Fundamental Principles*Developmental Evaluation in Context*External Evaluators and Developmental Evaluation*Ten Key Points about Developmental Evaluation Illustrated by the Caribbean Example4. Situation Recognition and Responsiveness: Distinguishing Simple, Complicated, and Complex*Detecting Patterns*Detecting Complexity as a Distinct Pattern and Territory for Inquiry*The Challenges of Situation Recognition*A Situation Recognition Heuristic: Distinguishing Simple, Complicated, and Complex*Situational Evaluation: Implications for Practice*Variations on a Theme: The Cynefin Framework5. Systems Thinking and Complexity Concepts for Developmental Evaluation*From Train Brakeman to Locomotive Engineer to Evaluation Champion*Project SleepBetter*Systems Thinking*Complexities of Complexity*Useful Complexity Constructs for Developmental Evaluation*Complexity-Sensitizing Concepts6. How the World Is Changed: A Dialectic with Thesis and Antithesis and Developmental Evaluation as the Synthesis*Competing Perspectives on How the World Is Changed*The Top-Down Approach*Adaptation versus Replication: Principles for Developmental Evaluation*Best Practices versus Effective Principles*From the Grass Roots to the Adaptive Middle*Alternative Approaches to Change*Developmental Evaluation: The Action in the Muddled Middle*Looking Back and Looking Forward*Appendix 6.1. Positioning and Contrasting Developmental Evaluation with Other Evaluation Approaches7. The Adaptive Cycle and Developmental Evaluation*Some Context for Understanding the Adaptive Cycle: Poetry, Ecology, Sociology, Business, and Evaluation*The Complexity Doorframe Redux*Five Developmental Evaluation Purposes and Uses*Resilience and Developmental Evaluation*A Strategic Approach to Resilience: Engineering Resilience versus Ecosystem Resilience*The Adaptive Cycle*The Adaptive Cycle and Psychosocial Regimes*Evaluation and the Adaptive Cycle*Through the Looking Glass of the Adaptive Cycle: Examples of Organizational and Program Cycles*Transitions and Traps*Taking an Innovation to Scale: Challenges and Traps in Cross-Scale Change*Panarchy: Cross-Scale Interactions*Panarchy-Informed Evaluation: The Fact of a Doorframe8. Developmental Evaluation Inquiry Frameworks*Frameworks for Developmental Evaluation Inquiry*Developmental Evaluation Inquiry Frameworks: Ten and Counting . . .9. Developmental Evaluation Bricolage: Reflective Practice, Sensitizing Concepts, Action Research, Abduction, Systems Change, and Retrospective Developmental Evaluation*Reflective Practice for Developmental Evaluation Inquiry and Engagement*Sensitizing Concepts as a Focus for Reflective Practice and Developmental Evaluation*Kia ora*Action Research and Developmental Evaluation*Intersections of Developmental Evaluation and Action Research: A Distinguished Evaluation Pioneer Reflects*Reasoning and Developmental Evaluation*In Praise of Methodological Diversity and Appropriateness: A Methods and Tools Rant*Systems Change and Developmental Evaluation*Retrospective Developmental Evaluation*Damiano's Retrospective Developmental Evaluation*Developmental Evaluation Bricolage10. Utilization-Focused Developmental Evaluation: Engagement Practices, Diverse Designs, and Adaptive Methods*Different Kinds of Developmental Evaluation*Diversity of Design and Methods Options*Utilization-Focused Developmental Evaluation*Ten Utilization-Focused Developmental Evaluation Design Examples*Developmental Evaluation Engagement, Design, and Methods Summary*The First Developmental Evaluation: A Creation Story
