To Prepare:

• Using this week’s Learning Resources and at least two resources you have located during work on your Environmental Scan blog, identify at least five scholars and/or practitioners in the evaluation field. Pay particular attention to leaders that have conducted work in areas of professional interest to you.
• Use the Walden Library and the Internet to locate detailed and in-depth information about the individuals you identified. It may be useful to use one or more of the following research strategies:
  • Pinball effect – This means that you should follow a trail of information wherever it leads you, clicking on hyperlinks or following leads in the library catalog to branch off to related topics. In education, this technique is rarely used because of the high emphasis and value placed on directed focus. In graduate study, the pinball effect may be the smartest thing to do—seeking connections across domains can lead to new constructions of knowledge. (The effect is named for the action of unexpected pathways that you create with a pinball machine game.)
  • Academic Legacy/Generationality – Trace the academic genealogy, or relationship between scholars that have mentored one another, within a particular area of evaluation.
  • Schools or Branches of Thought – You may find resources that categorize influential scholars and practitioners based on their theoretical or philosophical perspectives. Explore how these orientations affect the practice of evaluation.

Post detailed professional biographical information about at least five influential scholars and practitioners in the field of evaluation (either living or deceased). Include important terms, processes, strategies, or techniques associated with each person and the legacy that their contributions left on the field. Your information should go much deeper than encyclopedic-level information available in sources such as Wikipedia. Also, explain any global implications of the leaders’ work.