Setting the scene : the four domains of evaluative practice in Higher Education

Saunders, Murray (2011) Setting the scene : the four domains of evaluative practice in Higher Education. In: Reconceptualising Evaluation in Higher Education: the practice turn :. McGraw-Hill / Open University Press, Maidenhead, pp. 1-17. ISBN 9780335241606

Abstract

This chapter a departure from convention in that it seeks to dismantle traditional boundaries in approaches to evaluation. It does so in a sector that, ironically, is replete with many forms of evaluation, but has yet to become a focus for research into evaluative practices. The chapter is about how society, through its governance structures, decides on what is worthwhile in higher education, how its agencies attribute value to its policy and programme interventions, how institutions decide on the quality and merit of its internal practices and how groups of stakeholders (teachers, researchers, students, external collaborators) decide on the value of what they are doing. It makes a distinction between the evaluation of Higher Education and evaluative practice in Higher Education.