Reasoning in Evaluation

Deborah M. Fournier

Evaluators are in the business of reasoning their way toward legitimate conclusions that clients and other stakeholder groups can use. In everyday practice, evaluators collect and combine evidence to draw conclusions about something or someone. Reasoning is the basis for what evaluators do and what they tell their clients to do. But is the reasoning sound? Evaluative conclusions are often sources of controversy, and the inferences drawn from evidence always have potential loopholes for error. In what ways can the conclusions resulting from evaluations be trusted? How can evaluators reliably combine evidence from multiple sources into a final judgment about the merit or worth of something. How, and in what ways, can evaluative conclusions be justified in an objective way similar to empirical conclusions? Obtaining answers to these perennial questions facing evaluators in every...

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