A mentoring approach to the one-year evaluation course

This article presents the conceptual scheme for a one-year evaluation course. The scheme is based on the experience of the authors in developing a single-year evaluation course over a period of four years. The task of the evaluation course is to teach the competencies required to conduct evaluations that provide the sense-making needed for informed decision-making. Such competencies include eliciting, conceptualizing, and providing information, as well as interactions, processes, and experiences required to conduct evaluations that provide the sense-making needed for informed decision-making. The authors have found that these competencies are based on four kinds of knowledge: theoretical, methodological, conceptualization of practice (including converting tacit to explicit knowledge) and practical personal knowledge. These knowledge categories entail a dialog between theory and practice. Hence, the authors have constructed a conceptual setting for teaching evaluation against the background of mentoring, a system that combines theory and practice. The article presents each kind of knowledge, explaining its role in evaluation, the type of learning needed to master it, and the format adopted in the course for teaching it, including the dilemmas that arose in the course of study and practice. Solutions for such dilemmas are offered and discussed. The article ends with a discussion of student feedback on the course.