Improving Practice through Illuminative Evaluation

Abstract

Evaluation research aimed at improving sequences of social work practice is unlikely to provide highly desirable and useful information unless it is framed and guided by an appropriate research paradigm. The traditional approach to evaluation research in social work, employing approximations of experimental design, often misses the mark when evaluative intentions are formative in nature. The illuminative paradigm, borrowed from educational research and adopting a naturalistic investigative orientation, appears to offer more appropriate and valuable guidance for evaluation efforts that are primarily aimed at describing, analyzing, understanding, and improving practice.