Qualitative Evaluation Methods

✍ Scribed by Michael Quinn Patton

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 377
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The emphasis throughout Qualitative Evaluation Methods is on strategies for generating valid, useful, and credible qualitative information for decision-making. Different approaches to field observations, in-depth interviewing, and qualitative data analysis are explained; and examples of different research strategies are provided, including samples of qualitative instruments and excerpts from naturalistic inquiry reports. This book provides evaluators with the first comprehensive framework for deciding when it is appropriate to use qualitative evaluation methods. Patton's concrete approach represents a unique and much-needed contribution to the evaluation research literature.

`a very good book indeed... I have read and re-read many parts of the text... Wit, thoughtfulness, graceful style, and practical advice are well mixed... a welcome contribution to the maturing of evaluation into an interdisciplinary field whose function in describing and understanding social programs is as important as its role in explaining or judging those programs′ -- Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis

✦ Table of Contents

1. Preface
   PART I: CONCEPTUAL ISSUES IN THE USE OF METHODS FOR EVALUATION RESEARCH
2. A Paradigm of Choices
3. The Nature of Qualitative Data
4. The Strategy of Qualitative Methods
5. Evaluation Research Strategies Using Qualitative Methods
6. Evaluation Models Compatible with Qualitative Methods
7. Beyond Models: The Practice of Evaluation
8. Checklist of Evaluation Situations for which Qualitative Methods are Appropriate
9. Evaluation Designs
10. Critical Trade—Offs in Evaluation Design
11. Methodological Mixes
12. The Case of Operation Reach-Out: Variations in Program Evaluation Design
    PART II: COLLECTING QUALITATIVE DATA
13. Evaluation Through Observation
14. Variations in Observational Methods
15. What to Observe
16. Doing Fieldwork: The Data-Gathering Process
17. The Stages of Fieldwork
18. The Observer and What Is Observed: Unity and Separation
19. Qualitative Interviewing
20. Variations in Qualitative Interviewing
21. The Content of Interviews: What Questions to Ask
22. The Wording of Questions
23. Recording the Data
24. Personal Reflections on Interviewing
25. Appendix 7.1
26. Appendix 7.2
    PART III: DATA ANALYSIS
27. The Purpose of Qualitative Analysis: A Perspective
28. Truth
29. Theory
30. Generalizations
31. A Documentor’s Perspective
32. Qualitative Analysis and Interpretation
33. Qualitative Description
34. Case Studies
35. Inductive Analysis
36. Logical Analysis
37. Validation and Verification
38. Presentation of Findings
39. Appendix 9.1
40. Appendix 9.2
41. Appendix 9.3
42. References
43. Index
44. About the Author

✦ Subjects

Research;Social Sciences;Politics & Social Sciences;Social Sciences;Anthropology;Criminology;Political Science;Psychology;Sociology; sociology, interviewing, qualitative methods, data analysis, methodology, statistics, program evaluation, social sciences, social action programs, fieldwork, anthropology, survey design