ABSTRACT
The notions of ‘Form’ and ‘Approach’ provide an epistemological framework for understanding the breadth of evaluative enquiry. Evaluative enquiry can be classified conceptually into five categories, or Forms. These have been labelled as follows: Proactive; Clarificative; Interactive; Monitoring; and Impact. Proactive evaluation places the evaluator as an adviser, providing information about the extent of the problem that policy should address, or what program format is needed. Proactive evaluation may provide leaders with ‘just in time’ advice for making key decisions which affect the future or even survival of an organisation. Interactive evaluation is based on an assumption that those with a direct vested interest in programmatic interventions within organisations or communities should also control the evaluation of these interventions. Maher employed several evaluation Forms in relation to an innovative teaching program titled ‘Preparing for the Victorian Certificate of Education’, awarded to students who graduate from secondary school.
