Evaluation and Experiment
Evaluation and Experiment

Author: Carl A. Bennett

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2013-09-24

Total Pages: 572

ISBN-13: 1483260844

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Evaluation and Experiment: Some Critical Issues in Assessing Social Programs is a collection of papers presented at the 1973 symposium held at The Battelle Seattle Research Center. This book contains eight chapters that consider some selected aspects of the problems in evaluating the outcomes of socially important programs, such as those dealing with education, health, and economic policy. The first chapter provides an overview of the issues around the Social Program Evaluation. The next chapters deal with the successes and failures brought by social innovations; the quasi-experimental evaluation in compensatory education to estimate the true effects of such education programs; and the usefulness and validity of econometric and related nonexperimental approaches for assessing the effects of social programs. These topics are followed by surveys of a number of additional program-evaluation studies, particularly in the field of family planning or fertility control, mostly carried out as experiments or quasi-experiments in Asian and Latin American countries. Other chapters describe the decision processes that involve explicit assessment of the worth or merit of outcomes and employ multivalued utility analysis and outline the ways in which evaluative data are useful in providing feedback to program or institutional operations and decisions. The final chapter discusses resolutions for some of the disagreements expressed by others concerning the role of field experiments, constraints in their utilization, and other factors that enter into a comprehensive conception of program evaluation.

Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences
Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences

Author: Mark Petticrew

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1405150149

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Such diverse thinkers as Lao-Tze, Confucius, and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have all pointed out that we need to be able to tell the difference between real and assumed knowledge. The systematic review is a scientific tool that can help with this difficult task. It can help, for example, with appraising, summarising, and communicating the results and implications of otherwise unmanageable quantities of data. This book, written by two highly-respected social scientists, provides an overview of systematic literature review methods: Outlining the rationale and methods of systematic reviews; Giving worked examples from social science and other fields; Applying the practice to all social science disciplines; It requires no previous knowledge, but takes the reader through the process stage by stage; Drawing on examples from such diverse fields as psychology, criminology, education, transport, social welfare, public health, and housing and urban policy, among others. Including detailed sections on assessing the quality of both quantitative, and qualitative research; searching for evidence in the social sciences; meta-analytic and other methods of evidence synthesis; publication bias; heterogeneity; and approaches to dissemination.

Experimental and Quasi-experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference
Experimental and Quasi-experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference

Author: William R. Shadish

Publisher: Cengage Learning

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 664

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sections include: experiments and generalised causal inference; statistical conclusion validity and internal validity; construct validity and external validity; quasi-experimental designs that either lack a control group or lack pretest observations on the outcome; quasi-experimental designs that use both control groups and pretests; quasi-experiments: interrupted time-series designs; regresssion discontinuity designs; randomised experiments: rationale, designs, and conditions conducive to doing them; practical problems 1: ethics, participation recruitment and random assignment; practical problems 2: treatment implementation and attrition; generalised causal inference: a grounded theory; generalised causal inference: methods for single studies; generalised causal inference: methods for multiple studies; a critical assessment of our assumptions.

The Pleasures of Statistics
The Pleasures of Statistics

Author: Frederick Mosteller

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2010-03-10

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 0387779566

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From his unique perspective, renowned statistician and educator Frederick Mosteller describes many of the projects and events in his long career. From humble beginnings in western Pennsylvania to becoming the founding chairman of Harvard University’s Department of Statistics and beyond, he inspired many statisticians, scientists, and students with his unabashed pragmatism, creative thinking, and zest for both learning and teaching. This candid account offers fresh insights into the qualities that made Mosteller a superb teacher, a prolific scholar, a respected leader, and a valued advisor. A special feature of the book is its chapter-length insider accounts of work on the pre-election polls of 1948, statistical aspects of the Kinsey report on sexual behavior in the human male, mathematical learning theory, authorship of the disputed Federalist papers, safety of anesthetics, and a wide-ranging examination of the Coleman report on equality of educational opportunity. This volume is a companion to Selected Papers of Frederick Mosteller (Springer, 2006) and A Statistical Model: Frederick Mosteller’s Contributions to Statistics, Science, and Public Policy (Springer-Verlag, 1990). Frederick Mosteller (1916–2006) was Roger I. Lee Professor of Mathematical Statistics at Harvard University. His manuscript was unfinished at his death and has been updated.

Evaluation in the Federal Government: Changes, Trends, and Opportunities
Evaluation in the Federal Government: Changes, Trends, and Opportunities

Author: Christopher G. Wye

Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A significant report on a critical topic, this classic volume of the New Directions for Evaluation series is now in print and available again. This issue, which includes government documents pertaining to evaluation as well as contributions from federal evaluators and administrators, outlines the duties, responsibilities, and methodological approaches of the various government offices with evaluative functions, and details some of the strategies used by these agencies to cope with the twin pressures of reduced funding and greater calls to demonstrate the effectiveness of government programs—pressures first felt in the 1980s and which continue to the present day. The contributors discuss federal evaluation agencies in three broad categories: executive branch social agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where the cutbacks were the most severe; the three so-called central executive branch agencies—the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and the General Services Administration—where cutbacks were less severe but still significant, and where attitudes towards evaluation varied over time; and the evaluative agencies of the legislative branch—the General Accounting Office, the Congressional Budget Office, the Congressional Research Service, and the Office of Technology Assessment—where evaluation remained fairly robust and well-funded. This is the 55th volume of the quarterly report series New Directions for Evaluation.

Social Science Research
Social Science Research

Author: Anol Bhattacherjee

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2012-04-01

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9781475146127

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.

Social Experimentation
Social Experimentation

Author: Henry W. Riecken

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2013-09-11

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 1483269957

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Social Experimentation: A Method for Planning and Evaluating Social Intervention summarizes the available knowledge about how randomized experiments might be used in planning and evaluating ameliorative social programs. The book presents various aspects of social experimentation - design, measurement, execution, sponsorship, and utilization of results. Chapters are devoted to topics on experimentation as a method of program planning and evaluation; experimental design and analysis; institutional and political factors in social experimentation; and aspects of time and institutional capacity. Sociologists will find the book a valuable piece of reference.

Experimenting with Babies
Experimenting with Babies

Author: Shaun Gallagher

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2013-10-01

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1101599693

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Babies can be a joy—and hard work. Now, they can also be a 50-in-1 science project kit! This fascinating and hands-on guide shows you how to re-create landmark scientific studies on cognitive, motor, language, and behavioral development—using your own bundle of joy as the research subject. Simple, engaging, and fun for both baby and parent, each project sheds light on how your baby is acquiring new skills—everything from recognizing faces, voices, and shapes to understanding new words, learning to walk, and even distinguishing between right and wrong. Whether your little research subject is a newborn, a few months old, or a toddler, these simple, surprising projects will help you see the world through your baby’s eyes—and discover ways to strengthen newly acquired skills during your everyday interactions.